RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO   •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA    •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY    •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OP  CANADA.  LTD. 

TORONTO 


Rural  Childhood 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


An  Inquiry  by  the 
NATIONAL  CHILD  LABOR  COMMITTEE 

Based  Upon  Conditions  in  West  Virginia 


Under  the  direction  of 
EDWARD   N.    CLOPPER,   PH.D. 


Photographic  Illustrations  by  Lewis  W.  Hine 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1922 

All  rights  reserved 


.     .  .  .  ?RltfiED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 
;*•,•*         .  V    ••*•»• 


l*  a. 
YV  H   /Y3 


COPYRIGHT,  1922, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  printed.    Published  March,  1922. 


Press  of 

J.  J.  Little  &  Ives  Company 
New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

This  volume  is  offered  to  the  public  in  the  hope  that  it 
will  serve  a  double  purpose :  First,  to  present  to  its  readers 
a  graphic  picture  of  rural  life  in  America,  thus  bringing 
to  the  general  public  a  realization  of  the  needs  of  country 
children;  and  second,  to  trace  the  cause  of  conditions  and 
suggest  a  definite  and  practical  outline  of  preventive  and 
remedial  policies. 

The  authors  of  the  several  chapters  have  made  their 
studies  and  formulated  their  conclusions  in  accordance  with 
what  Professor  A.  J.  Todd  has  called  "the  scientific  spirit 
in  social  work,"  yet  have  portrayed  with  a  warm  human  sym- 
pathy life  as  it  is  actually  lived  in  many  parts  of  rural 
America. 

OWEN  R.  LOVEJOY 

General  Secretary 

NATIONAL  CHILD  LABOR  COMMITTEE. 
December  17,  1921. 


492042 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

THE  RIGHTS  OF  CHILDREN  AND  STANDARDS 

FOR  THEIR  WELFARE    .    .  Edward  N.  Clop  per        i 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  RURAL  HO'ME   ....   Charles  E.  Gibbons       12 

CHAPTER  II 

CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS    Walter  W .  Armentrout      52 

CHAPTER  III 

RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE    Gertrude  H.  Folks      94 

CHAPTER  IV 

RURAL  RECREATION  ....  Raymond  G.  Fuller     140 

CHAPTER  V 

RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY,  NEGLECT 

AND  DELINQUENCY    ....    Sara  A.  Brown     165 

CHAPTER  VI 

TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD   .     .  Hettie  L.  Hazlett     238 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  .     .     .    W.  H.  Swift     261 

APPENDIX     .    .    . 339 

INDEX 341 


xvii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Rural   Childhood Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Club  Girls  Demonstrating  at  Fair 18 

Home  Activity  of  1 6-year-old  Club  Girl  ....  18 

Another  1 6-year-old  Girl  with  no  Outside  Interests     .  18 

The  Teacher  and  One  Lone  Pupil  in  School  in  Beet- 
District 54 

The  Same  School  After  Harvesting  Is  Over     ...  54 

"An  Eleven-year-old-All-around  Farmer"  ....  54 

Boy  on  Mowing  Machine  Which  Cut  Off  His  Hand  .  54 

County  Agent  Advising   Negro   Boy 72 

Club  Member  Showing  Wool  at  Fair 72 

Typical  One-room  Rural  School 96 

Interior   of    School   Above 96 

Consolidated  School  in  the  Heart  of  the  Country  .      .  118 

The  Consolidation  Makes  Possible  Modern  Equipment  118 

With  a  Live  Leader  Playground  Equipment  Is  an  Es- 
sential     142 

The  Country  Is   Not  Without   Natural  Recreational 

Facilities 142 

"Be  It  Ever  So  Humble—" 262 

What  Will  This  Country  Boy  Do  with  His  Heritage?  262 

Bad  Roads  Are  an  Obstacle  to  Economic  and  Social 

Development 262 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


l'  1      '         '''',',    '  '  ,    '       ) 

r   •  '.....,'-. 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

Edward  N.  Clopper 

THE  fundamental  purpose  of  child  welfare  work  is  to 
prolong  the  period  of  childhood.  Nothing  constructive  can 
be  done  for  children  unless  the  time  in  which  to  do  it  is 
assured,  and  the  time  to  serve  children  is  in  childhood.  So 
success  in  all  efforts  in  behalf  of  boys  and  girls  depends  first 
of  all  upon  the  element  of  time — upon  the  certainty  of  child- 
hood. 

But  it  is  not  enough  to  have  childhood — it  must  be  made 
secure  to  all  children,  whatever  their  state  or  station.  This 
can  be  accomplished  through  the  taking  of  proper  measures. 
They  must  be  saved  from  disease,  cured  of  deformity  if  any 
exist,  and  given  health  and  vigor;  for  health  nowadays  can 
to  a  great  extent  be  arranged  for  in  advance.  They  must 
be  protected  from  exploitation  in  any  form.  They  must  not 
be  abused.  And  they  must  be  drawn  away  from  tendencies 
toward  crime.  These  are  protective  measures. 

If  they  are  poor  their  suffering  must  be  relieved,  the  while 
our  social  forces  strive  to  banish  poverty.  If  they  are 
neglected  or  destitute  or  afflicted  they  must  be  given  care 
such  as  we  should  all  give  to  our  own.  This  is  charity — 
and  a  fig  for  those  who  would  disparage  the  word. 

And  they  must  all  be  schooled  and  trained  and  guided. 
These  are  educative  measures. 

Above  all,  let  them  play ;  for  play  is  the  means  to  growth 
and  refreshment.  This  is  both  creative  and  recreative. 

Protective,  educative,  recreational,  and  charitable  work — 
this  is  what  we  must  rely  upon  to  keep  the  canker  of  age 
out  of  childhood.  There  is  no  more  pathetic  sight  than  a 

I 


2>  :Rt)RAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

child  grown  -old',  'or*  a  sadder  loss  than  the  loss  of  childhood. 
And  the  responsibility  is  ours — this  we  must  never  forget. 

Have  we  made  the  way  smooth  for  every  child?  It  is  ar 
commonplace  that  a  great  deal  has  been  done  and  that  a 
great  deal  remains  to  be  done.  But  what  has  been  done  has 
been  done  largely  for  the  boys  and  girls  of  our  cities — 
country  children  have  been  comparatively  neglected.  Per- 
haps we  should  be  nearer  the  truth  if  we  said  that  country 
children  have  been  looked  upon  as  most  fortunately  situated 
and  therefore  not  in  need  of  laws  or  the  service  of  agencies, 
simply  because  they  were  country  children;  at  any  rate  it 
has  been  generally  assumed  that  the  measures  so  far  devised 
for  the  sake  of  urban  children  were  necessarily  just  as  good 
for  rural  children  and  would  reach  them  in  some  way  or 
other  just  as  well.  The  country  child  has  not  had  equal 
standing  with  the  city  child  in  the  consideration  of  child 
welfare  matters ;  his  place  has  so  far  been  in  the  background 
of  programs  drawn  up  and  acted  upon  in  the  social  interest. 

This  volume  throws  down  the  gauntlet  to  all  who  hold 
the  view  that  rural  child  life  is  safe  and  needs  no  care  from 
the  state.  It  reveals  a  situation  which  challenges  the  sober 
thought  of  the  people  generally.  The  rural  child  is  not  get- 
ting a  square  deal — there  can  be  no  doubt  of  this  in  any 
one's  mind  after  having  read  the  following  chapters. 

An  eleven-year-old  orphan  boy,  living  with  foster  parents 
in  the  country,  saw  some  candy,  oranges,  and  chewing-gum 
in  a  railroad  freight  depot  and  wanted  them.  At  night  he 
broke  in,  got  them,  and  hid  them  under  a  porch;  then  he 
told  a  railroad  policeman  where  they  were.  He  was  ar- 
rested, lodged  in  jail  for  one  night  and  then  taken  to  an 
almshouse  for  detention,  charged  with  felony  and  bound 
over  to  the  grand  jury. 

A  fourteen-year-old  girl  and  her  three  younger  sisters 
were  deserted  and  left  alone  in  a  mountain  cabin  last  winter 
by  their  father.  Their  mother  had  been  dead  a  year.  Food 
and  fuel  gave  out  and  a  heavy  snow  fell.  They  trudged 
over  the  mountain  to  a  friend's  cabin,  only  to  find  it  empty, 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER  3 

and  then  for  three  weeks  they  tramped  about,  stopping  here 
and  there,  hunting  a  home.  At  last  they  were  snipped  to 
the  sheriff  who  turned  them  over  to  the  probation  officer  and 
private  homes  were  found  for  them.  They  are  now  attend- 
ing school  for  the  first  time. 

In  a  certain  rural  community  three  families  of  children 
were  found,  not  one  of  whom  was  attending  or  was  even 
enrolled  in  school,  and  neither  the  local  teacher  nor  any  one 
in  authority  was  aware  of  the  fact.  At  another  place  the 
parents  of  four  children  aged  15,  12,  10,  and  8  years,  keep 
them  out  of  school  to  help  with  the  farm  work;  not  one  of 
them  has  been  to  school  this  year  and  not  one  has  got  beyond 
the  first  grade,  although  they  are  not  dull.  Why  should  we 
be  astonished  at  the  extent  of  illiteracy  among  us?  It  is 
what  we  should  expect  as  a  logical  sequence.  A  coal  mine 
operator  told  me  that  last  summer  he  hired  144  native- 
born  white  men  living  near  his  property  and  only  1 1  of  them 
could  sign  the  pay-roll. 

Two  boys,  aged  12  and  14  years,  operate  a  farm  of  140 
acres  while  fheir  father  works  in  a  mine.  Another  twelve- 
year-old  boy  runs  a  tractor  on  the  farm  where  he  lives,  and 
disks  a  twenty-acre  field  unaided. 

How  general  are  these  conditions?  Are  they  representa- 
tive of  what  may  be  found  in  rural  districts  throughout  the 
land?  No  one  is  prepared  to  answer. 

No  one  knows  the  full  extent  of  child  dependency  or 
delinquency  or  defectiveness  in  the  country;  no  public  or 
private  agency  reaches  it  as  it  should  be  reached.  Unfortu- 
nate rural  children  are  largely  left  to  chance  care.  Poor 
relief  is  administered  with  a  view  to  the  sparing  of  expense 
rather  than  to  the  needs  of  the  beneficiaries.  Children  are 
placed  out  anywhere  by  anybody  through  agreement  or  con- 
tract or  indentures  or  "just  for  accommodation";  county 
authorities  commonly  place  them  in  almshouses  with  old  men 
and  women  and  the  mentally  deficient,  or  in  the  care  of 
guardians,  or  haphazard  in  private  homes,  or  bind  them  out 
under  the  apprenticeship  law. 


4  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Poor  housing,  lack  of  the  simplest  sanitary  devices,  failure 
to  observe  even  elementary  health  precautions,  extra  labor 
made  necessary  by  the  absence  of  conveniences  common  in 
cities,  lack  of  recreational  life,  wretched  schooling  facilities 
and  poor  quality  of  teachers,  burdens  prematurely  placed 
upon  children  in  farm-  and  house-work,  the  undeveloped 
social  sense  of  rural  folk,  and  their  disinclination  to  work 
together  for  the  common  good — these  are  the  drawbacks  of 
country  life.  A  better  day  is  coming  for  the  country  child,  but 
it  will  not  be  ushered  in  through  the  cities — country  people 
must  bring  about  its  dawn  themselves,  and  they  can  do  it  if 
they  will  but  look  at  the  child's  needs  from  the  viewpoint 
of  the  child  instead  of  from  their  own  and  then  take  the 
action,  partly  individual  and  partly  joint,  that  common  sense 
dictates.  They  who  would  be  saved  must  save  themselves. 

It  is  the  object  of  this  volume  to  point  out  some  of  the 
needs  of  rural  children  as  indicated  by  the  findings  it  sets 
forth;  if  it  arouses  the  interest  of  rural  men  and  women 
and  stimulates  local  achievement  in  the  quest  for  happiness, 
its  authors  will  be  richly  rewarded  for  their  labors.  The 
study  of  conditions  in  West  Virginia  upon  which  the  report 
is  based,  was  made  possible  by  a  number  of  public-spirited 
citizens  of  the  state  whose  enthusiasm  for  the  work  and 
generous  contributions  toward  its  expenses  have  sustained 
the  enterprise  throughout. 

The  reader  will  note  that  in  several  of  the  chapters  cer- 
tain subjects  are  discussed  which  seem  to  belong  properly  to 
other  chapters.  For  instance,  the  chapter  on  "The  Rural 
Home"  discusses  recreation  and  also  school  attendance 
although  these  are  the  subjects  of  other  chapters;  similarly, 
the  chapter  on  "Child  Labor"  also  discusses  these  subjects, 
and  it  may  seem  at  first  glance  that  this  is  merely  repetition. 
The  purpose  of  such  treatment  by  several  contributors,  how- 
ever, is  to  present  these  subjects  from  different  viewpoints, 
as  they  arise  in  the  discussion  of  the  general  subject  treated 
in  each  chapter.  The  chapter  on  school  attendance  presents 
the  life  of  the  child  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  school;  the 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER  5 

chapter  on  the  rural  home  presents  it  from  the  viewpoint  of 
the  home — and  so  with  the  other  chapters,  each  treats  the 
child  from  the  viewpoint  of  its  special  subject.  Necessarily 
there  is  some  repetition,  but  wherever  it  occurs  it  has  a 
peculiar  value  in  that  it  corroborates  the  findings  from  a  dif- 
ferent angle.  The  advantage  of  a  study  of  this  kind  is 
that  it  affords  the  opportunity  to  approach  the  consideration 
of  factors  entering  into  a  child's  life  from  several  quarters, 
not  merely  from  one  alone.  Thus  it  presents  a  picture  more 
complete  and  more  understandable. 

It  is  more  than  a  study  of  conditions  found  within  a 
given  area  or  peculiar  to  any  locality — it  is  a  consideration 
of  problems  arising  wherever  attempts  are  made  to  raise 
rural  child  life  to  a  higher  plane.  The  discussion  in  each 
chapter  is  based  upon  the  experience  of  its  author  in  dealing 
with  child  welfare  matters  in  many  parts  of  the  United 
States,  and  has  for  a  background  a  knowledge  of  conditions 
reaching  far  beyond  the  confines  of  the  state  where  the 
field  work  of  this  inquiry  was  done.  It  is  hoped  that  it 
will  be  of  general  interest,  for  this  reason. 

In  pursuing  their  work  in  behalf  of  children  during  the 
past  several  years,  the  authors  of  this  volume  have  tried  to 
keep  in  mind  the  rights  of  the  child  and  the  duties  of  the 
state  as  well  as  of  the  parents.  These  have  not  always  been 
clear  and  definite,  and  different  opinions  on  this  or  that 
point  have  sometimes  been  confusing,  but  nevertheless  there 
has  been  substantial  agreement  upon  essentials.  In  the 
course  of  this  study  they  undertook  to  set  down  on  paper 
their  views  as  to  the  rights  of  children  and  proper  standards 
for  their  care  in  order  that  these  might  serve  as  a  criterion 
by  which  conditions  determining  the  well-being  of  children 
could  be  measured.  These  views  appear  in  the  following 
statement.  The  authors  of  this  volume  submit  them  with  a 
lively  sense  of  their  limitations  but  believing  that  they  may 
be  useful  in  revealing  both  the  spirit  in  which  this  inquiry 
has  been  made  and  the  convictions  of  a  group  of  social 
workers  as  to  the  needs  of  children  everywhere. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  CHILDREN 

AND 
STANDARDS  FOR  THEIR  WELFARE 

RIGHTS 

Every  child  has  the  right  to  a  normal  childhood.  The 
enjoyment  of  the  following  rights  is  essential  to  a  normal 
childhood : 

I.     The  right  to  be  born  in  honor  and  sound  in  body  and 
mind ;  to  protection  from  disease ;  and  to  the  pro- 
motion of  health. 
II.     The  right  to  care,  food,  shelter,  and  clothing. 

III.  The  right  to  education  and  training  sufficient  to  de- 

velop fully  his  capacity  for  knowledge  and  achieve- 
ment. 

IV.  The  right  to  play  and  recreation;    and  to  the  com- 

panionship of  his  fellows. 

V.     The  right  to  be  safeguarded  from  neglect,  abuse, 
exploitation,  and  other  injustice. 

The  agency  which  society  depends  upon  primarily  for 
securing  to  the  child  the  foregoing  rights  is  the  private 
family  home.  A  private  family  home  is  the  residing 
together,  as  a  social  unit,  of  the  child  and  both  or  either  of 
his  parents  or  foster  parents. 

It  is  the  function  of  the  state  to  guarantee  to  every  child 
the  enjoyment  of  these  rights  and  to  cooperate  with  the 
home  in  providing  facilities  whereby  he  may  enjoy  them. 

It  is  the  right  of  either  parent  to  have,  jointly  and  equally 
with  the  other,  the  control  and  custody  of  his  child;  and 
each  parent  is  responsible  for  providing  fully  for  his  child. 

6 


RIGHTS  AND  STANDARDS  7 

A  court  record  shall  be  made  of  every  transfer  of  the  guard- 
ianship of  a  child. 

An  illegitimate  child  is  the  child  of  the  mother  only,  but 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  father,  when  so  declared  by  law,  to 
support  the  child  in  every  respect  as  if  born  in  wedlock. 

STANDARDS 

In  order  to  protect  the  child  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  rights 
under  modern  conditions,  the  following  standards  are 
necessary : 

Concerning  Right  I — 

a.  No  marriage  should  be  performed  without  a  license 
having  been  issued  therefor.     In  order  to  qualify   for  a 
license  the  male  should  be  at  least  eighteen  and  the  female 
at  least  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  both  should  show  that  they 
are  sound  in  mind  and  free  from  venereal  disease. 

b.  No  woman  should  be  employed  within  four  weeks 
before,  or  within  eight  weeks  after,  confinement. 

c.  Complete  and  reliable  vital  statistics  should  be  gath- 
ered,   recorded,   preserved,   and   published   by   the   public 
authorities. 

d.  Medical  advice  and  nursing  service  should  be  made 
available  to  all  mothers  during  pregnancy,  at  confinement, 
and  thereafter. 

e.  Every  child  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  whether 
at  home,  at  school,  or  at  work,  should  undergo  at  least 
annually  a  health  examination.     Treatment  for  the  remedy- 
ing of  defects  or  other  handicaps  to  health  should  be  sup- 
plied to  every  child  needing  it.     Facilities  for  the  care  and 
treatment  of  such  children  in  hospitals,  through  nursing 
service,  or  otherwise,  should  be  provided. 

f.  Every  child  of  compulsory  school  attendance  age 
should  be  given  mental  tests.     Care,  treatment,  and  training 
of  mentally  deficient  children  should  be  provided  for. 


8  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

g.  A  full-time  public  health  unit  under  the  supervision 
of  the  state  health  department  should  be  created  in  every 
county  or  subdivision  of  the  population  not  too  large  for 
efficient  administration,  in  order  to  promote  the  health  of 
the  community  and  of  its  individual  members. 

h.  It  is  the  business  of  the  nation  as  well  as  of  the 
state  to  safeguard  and  to  promote  the  health  of  the  child; 
therefore  both  federal  and  state  aid  should  be  granted  to 
carry  out  health  programs. 

i.  Training  for  physical  development,  the  cultivation 
of  health  habits,  and  instruction  in  hygiene  should  be  a 
feature  of  all  school  work. 


Concerning  Right  II — 

a.  It  is  the  duty  of  every  home  to  supply  these  neces- 
saries and  it  is  the  province  of  the  state  to  see  that  this  duty 
is   performed.     Social   effort   should   be   directed   toward 
enabling  every  home  to  meet  this  responsibility;  in  so  far 
as  any  home  is  unable  to  do  so  but  is  otherwise  suitable  for 
the  child,  it  should  receive  from  private  or  public  sources 
sufficient  aid  to  make  possible  the  fulfilment  of  these  obli- 
gations. 

b.  A  home  life  as  nearly  normal  as  possible  should 
be  secured  to  every  handicapped  child,  however  unfortu- 
nately circumstanced ;  but  if  the  best  interests  of  such  child 
or  of  society  should  require  it  either  temporarily  or  perma- 
nently, special  care  and  training  adapted  to  his  needs  should 
be  provided  in  an  appropriate  institution. 

c.  All  such  rehabilitation  and  relief  work  and  special 
care  should  be  under  the  supervision  of  the  state. 


Concerning  Right  III — 

a.    Adequate  school  facilities  should  be  made  available 
to  every  child  irrespective  of  race  or  color. 


RIGHTS  AND  STANDARDS  9 

b.  Every  child  between  the  ages  of  7  and  18  years 
should  be  required  to  attend  the  public  school  where  he 
resides  for  the  entire  time  such  school  is  in  session;  pro- 
vided, however,  that  this  do  not  apply  to 

(1)  such  child  attending  private  or  parochial  school 
or  other  public  school  approved    by  the  state  educational 
authorities ; 

(2)  such  child  if  he  has  completed  the  courses  of 
study  offered  by  the  public  school  where  he  resides;  or  to 

(3)  a  child  between  the  ages  of  16  and  18  years  who 
has  completed  the  eighth  grade  and  is  lawfully  at  work. 

c.  Children  between  the  ages  of  16  and  18  years  who 
have  not  completed  high-school  and  are  lawfully  at  work 
should  be  required  to  attend  continuation  schools  for  at  least 
eight  hours  a  week,  and  such  schools  should  be  established 
in  every  community  where  15  or  more  such  children  are  at 
work;  provided,  however,  that  this  requirement  does  not 
apply  to  such  children  if  engaged  in  club-  or  project- work 
carried  on  jointly  by  the  state  and  federal  governments  or  if 
in  attendance  upon  instruction  on  the  co-operative  plan  when 
approved  by  the  state  educational  authorities. 

d.  Special  instruction  should  be  provided  for  the  men- 
tally or  physically  handicapped ;  and  special  opportunities  for 
advancement  should  be  afforded  every  child  in  accordance 
with  his  ability. 

e.  Provision  should  be  made  in  every  county,  town, 
and  city  for  attendance  officers  whose  duties  should  be  to 
take  the  school  census,  to  make  and  to  keep  up-to-date  a  com- 
plete and  accurate  list  of  all  children  of  school  age  within 
their  jurisdiction,  to  enforce  the  school  attendance  law,  and 
to  issue  work  permits. 

f.  The  minimum  term  of  every  school,  whether  urban 
or  rural,  should  be  nine  months. 

g.  In  order  to  insure  the  adequacy  of  school  facilities 
and  to  equalise  educational  opportunities,  federal  as  well  as 
state  aid  should  be  granted  to  the  public  schools. 


io  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

h.  The  unit  for  rural  school  administration  should  be 
that  political  subdivision  (in  most  states  the  county)  which 
is  best  adapted  to  insure  the  progressive  development  of  the 
schools,  including  consolidation  and  the  enforcement  of  at- 
tendance laws. 

i.  The  courses  of  study  of  public  schools  should  be  suf- 
ficiently varied  to  satisfy  the  educational  needs  of  all  chil- 
dren. 

j.  Vocational  guidance  should  be  afforded  all  children 
at  work  as  well  as  those  at  school  who  intend  to  go  to  work. 

Concerning  Right  IV — 

a.  Wholesome  play  and  recreation  should  be  fostered 
by  the  home,  the  school,  the  church,  and  the  community. 
Local  initiative,  talent,  and  leadership  should  be  everywhere 
encouraged  and  utilised. 

b.  Public  provision  should  be  made  for  suitable  recre- 
ational means,  such  as  parks,  playgrounds,  social  centers, 
concerts,   swimming-pools,  etc.,  including  the  recreational 
features  of  libraries,  farm  club  work,  athletics,  festivals, 
exhibitions,  and  lectures. 

c.  Trained  leaders  for  the  promotion  and  oversight 
of  play  and  recreation  should  be  supplied. 

d.  Commercial  amusements  and  public  gatherings  for 
recreational  purposes  should  be  subject  to  regulation  and 
supervision  by  public  authorities. 

Concerning  Right  V — 

a.  Juvenile  courts  should  be  created  for  the  protection 
of  neglected,  abused,  and  delinquent  children ;  and  every  such 
child  under  18  years  of  age  should  be  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  juvenile  court  unless  the  judge  should  transfer  his 
case  to  some  other  court  for  hearing. 

b.  The  probation   system  is  essential  and  upon  the 
character  of  its  service  the  juvenile  court  stands  or  falls. 

c.  Laws  should  be  enacted  and  means  provided  for 
protecting  the  person  and  property  of  every  child. 


RIGHTS  AND  STANDARDS  n 

d.  Apprenticeship   and  the  binding   out   of   children 
should  be  abolished. 

e.  No  child  under  16  years  of  age  should  be  employed 
at  gainful  occupations,  except  as  noted  below.     No  child 
between  16  and  18  years  of  age  should  be  employed  unless  a 
regular  work  permit  has  been  issued  to  Kis  employer  by 
public  school  authorities  upon  proof  that 

(1)  he  is  16  years  of  age  or  over; 

(2)  he  has  satisfactorily  completed  the  eighth  grade 
of  the  public  schools  or  its  equivalent; 

(3)  he  is  physically  fit  for  the  work  contemplated,  as 
certified  to  by  a  public  health-  or  school-physician ;  and  that 

(4)  he  has  the  assurance  of  lawful  work,  as  certi- 
fied to  by  his  prospective  employer. 

The  employment  of  children  between  14  and  18  years  of 
age  may  be  permitted  during  the  vacation  period  of  the 
public  schools  upon  the  issuance  of  vacation  permits,  no 
educational  qualification  being  required ;  and  also  on  Satur- 
days and  for  not  more  than  three  hours  daily  after  school 
hours  during  the  school  term  upon  the  issuance  of  special 
permits,  provided  the  child's  standing  in  school  be  satisfac- 
tory and  the  work  suitable. 

f.  Dangerous  occupations  should  be  forbidden  to  all 
children  under  18  years  of  age. 

g.  Employment  in  messenger  service  should  be  for- 
bidden to  girls  under  21  years  of  age  at  any  time,  and  to 
boys  under  21  years  of  age  at  night. 

h.  Children  between  14  and  18  years  of  age  should  not 
be  employed  at  gainful  occupations  more  than  8  hours  a 
day  or  forty-four  hours  a  week  or  before  seven  a.  m.  or 
after  six  p.  m.  of  any  day. 

i.  State  child  labor  laws  should  be  enforced  both  by 
state  officers  and  by  local  officers  under  the  supervision  of 
state  labor  authorities  and  in  cooperation  with  federal  offi- 
cers enforcing  the  federal  child  labor  tax  law. 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  RURAL  HOME 
Charles  E.  Gibbons 

THE  HOME  is  the  most  fundamental  of  all  institutions. 
Society  has  created  family  life  in  a  home  for  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  race.  Therefore  since  it  is  into  the  home  that 
children  are  born,  the  responsibility  of  providing  for  them 
health,  education,  recreation,  care,  food,  comfort,  clothing, 
and  shelter  rests  upon  the  home.  Some  of  these  things  are 
provided  for  outside  the  home  but  only  through  agreement 
by  the  majority  of  families.  It  is  only  by  virtue  of  such 
agreement  that  the  state  or  community  has  any  power  what- 
ever. The  delegation  of  power  to  other  agencies,  however, 
in  no  way  lessens  the  value  of  the  individual  home. 

Nature  has  decreed  how  children  shall  be  brought  into 
the  world.  Fundamentally  their  welfare  depends  upon  the 
working  of  natural  laws,  but  it  is  the  duty  of  society  to 
search  out  these  laws  and  combine  them  so  as  to  eliminate 
the  loss  of  time  and  avoid  the  waste  that  always  follows  if 
natural  law  is  left  to  work  alone.  Society  must  see  that  the 
conditions  under  which  children  are  born  and  live  throughout 
childhood  will  make  for  those  standards  of  life  which  experi- 
ence has  shown  to  be  best. 

Keeping  the  conditions  under  which  rural  children  are 
growing  up  steadily  in  mind,  an  attempt  is  made  to  answer 
such  questions  as  the  following:  What  constitutes  a  rural 
family?  How  many  children  are  there?  What  becomes 
of  them  when  they  grow  up?  What  kind  of  work  does  the 
family  do?  What  are  the  sources  and  amounts  of  income? 

12 


THE  RURAL  HOME  13 

What  does  the  farm  contribute  to  the  family  table?  What 
kind  of  a  house  does  the  family  have?  Are  the  doors  and 
windows  screened?  What  is  the  equipment  of  the  house? 
What  is  the  water  supply?  What  are  the  chances  for 
schooling  and  recreation?  What  kind  of  reading  material 
has  the  family?  In  a  word,  are  the  conditions  such  as  to 
insure  the  proper  development  of  all  children  born  in  the 
open  country  and  to  attract  and  hold  the  numbers  and  types 
of  children  necessary  to  guarantee  the  national  food  supply 
as  well  as  to  develop  a  happy,  prosperous,  intelligently  edu- 
cated, and  contented  rural  citizenry? 

The  presentation  of  facts  in  this  report  is  based  on  a 
study  of  conditions  in  West  Virginia.  While  the  state  lies 
wholly  in  the  mountain  area  of  Appalachia  yet  in  all  proba- 
bility it  offers  as  great  a  variety  of  types  and  conditions  of 
farming  as  any  other  state  in  the  Union.  There  are  to  be 
found  broad  and  narrow  valleys,  gently  rolling  land,  hilly 
and  steep  rocky  lands,  with  all  degrees  of  fertility. 

The  people  of  this  section  are  sometimes  referred  to  as 
Southern  Highlanders  but  the  application  of  this  term  does 
not  set  them  off  as  a  class  separate  and  distinct  from  any 
other  group  found  in  rural  sections.  There  are  to  be  found 
here,  as  elsewhere,  rich  and  poor,  industrious  and  shiftless, 
good  farmers  and  poor  farmers,  and  educated  and  unedu- 
cated. Some  communities  are  progressive  others  are  stag- 
nant. 

While  the  state  ranks  high  in  the  production  of  coal,  oil, 
sand,  other  minerals,  and  timber,  yet  agriculture  is  an  im- 
portant industry.  Much  of  the  land  is  too  rough  and  steep 
for  cultivation,  but  where  the  timber  has  been  taken  off,  the 
fertile  soil  makes  excellent  grazing  land.  General  grain 
and  livestock  raising  are  the  prevailing  types  of  farming. 
In  some  sections  tobacco,  potatoes,  tomatoes,  and  melons  are 
grown  extensively,  but  in  no  instance  is  the  cultivation  so 
exclusive  as  to  make  a  one-crop  system.  Fruits  are  grown 
over  the  entire  state,  and  in  the  eastern  panhandle, 
especially,  they  are  grown  on  an  extensive  commercial  scale. 


14  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

According  to  the  census  of  1920,  a  little  over  62  per  cent 
of  the  area  of  the  state  is  in  farms  and  these  farms  average 
109.6  acres  each.  A  great  part  of  the  remaining  land  is 
held  in  large  tracts  by  mining  and  lumber  companies.  In 
this  study  the  average  size  of  owners'  farms  was  found  to 
be  115.9  acres  and  of  tenants'  farms  81.5  acres.  So  far  as 
the  size  of  the  farm  is  concerned,  there  is  not  much  differ- 
ence between  the  average  for  the  state  as  a  whole  and  that 
of  the  families  visited  in  this  study. 

Tenancy  has  come  to  be  an  important  factor  in  our  system 
of  farming.  Its  main  purpose  is  to  serve  as  a"  stepping-stone 
to  ownership.  It  should  be  the  means  of  earning  enough 
money  to  buy  a  farm,  and  at  the  same  time  giving  the  family 
the  experience  and  knowledge  necessary  to  handle  it  suc- 
cessfully. Tenancy  should  operate  primarily  for  the  benefit 
of  the  tenants.  In  some  sections  of  the  country,  especially 
in  the  cash-crop  regions,  its  purpose  is  being  defeated,  for  it 
operates  to  make  ownership  by  the  owners  secure,  but  does 
not  give  tenants  a  chance  to  buy  land.  In  these  areas  ten- 
ancy is  high  and  rapidly  on  the  increase,  but  in  West  Vir- 
ginia it  is  only  16.2  per  cent  according  to  the  1920  census 
and  this  is  a  decrease  of  4.3  per  cent  under  1910.  Of  all 
the  farms  visited  in  this  study  13.4  per  cent  were  operated 
by  tenants.  Tenancy  is  working  in  a  normal  way  under 
conditions  that  are  normal,  according  to  the  findings  of  this 
study,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  study  sfiows  con- 
ditions in  a  relatively  good  year,  probably  much  above  the 
average  as  seasons  go. 

Eleven  communities  in  as  many  counties,  scattered 
throughout  the  state,  were  studied.  Considerable  care  was 
used  in  selecting  these  so  that  each  would  stand  out  in  refer- 
ence to  some  particular  phase  of  agriculture.  The  number 
is  large  enough  and  the  types  of  farming  sufficiently  varied 
to  give  a  fairly  comprehensive  understanding  of  conditions. 
The  communities  are  Edray  in  Pocahontas  County,  Gandee- 
ville  in  Roane,  Grangeville  in  Marion,  Sinks  Grove  in  Mon- 
roe, Three  Churches  in  Hampshire,  Inwood  in  Berkeley, 


THE  RURAL  HOME  15 

West  Hamlin  in  Lincoln,  Willow  Grove  in  Jackson,  St. 
Andrews  in  Jefferson,  Webster  Springs  in  Webster,  and 
Berkeley  Springs  in  Morgan.  In  all  except  the  last  two,  the 
information  makes  a  complete  community  study — that  is,  all 
the  families,  averaging  about  sixty  in  number  in  each  com- 
munity, surrounding  a  small  trading  center,  were  visited. 
In  Webster  County  the  families  are  contiguous  along  two 
rivers  and  in  Morgan  County  along  two  roads.  Seven  fam- 
ilies of  still  another  community  were  visited  in  Jefferson 
County. 

A  total  of  657  families  were  visited,  divided  as  follows : 
owners  486,  tenants  75,  and  laborers  96.  The  information 
is  tabulated  for  these  groups  for  each  community  and  for 
all  communities.  A  schedule  was  taken  to  each  home  and 
the  facts  secured  from  the  family  itself.  Not  a  single 
family  refused  to  give  the  information  requested.  The 
schedules  were  filled  by  the  writer  and  Mr.  Armentrout,  who 
lived  for  the  time  being  in  each  community,  residing  with 
some  family,  attending  church  services  and  Sunday  School, 
helping  with  the  farm  work,  and  otherwise  fitting  into  the 
life  of  the  people.  Splendid  co-operation  was  given  by  Mr. 
Nat  T.  Frame,  Director  of  the  Division  of  Extension,  and 
his  assistants,  particularly  in  selecting  the  communities  and 
in  preparing  the  questionnaire. 

Rural  life  takes  on  many  forms,  and  types  of  agriculture 
are  not  the  only  factors  influencing  it.  Mineral,  industrial 
and  urban  developments  are  having  an  increasingly  impor- 
tant bearing  upon  the  home  life  of  rural  children.  Through- 
out this  study  we  have  kept  in  mind  all  these  influences. 
West  Virginia  furnishes  the  illustrative  material  necessary 
to  a  general  understanding  of  rural  home  life  because  all 
these  factors  are  here  found  in  a  limited  area. 

Ownership  is  the  prevailing  form  of  land  tenure.  Sixty- 
eight  and  five-tenths  per  cent  of  the  owners'  acreage  has  been 
bought  and  the  remainder  inherited.  Nearly  63  per  cent  of 
the  owner  families  have  come  into  possession  of  their  land 
by  purchase  only,  slightly  more  than  16  per  cent  by  in- 


16  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

heritance  unly  and  nearly  21  per  cent  by  both  purchase  and 
inheritance.  The  average  period  of  ownership  by  purchase 
is  14.8  years  and  by  inheritance  19.4  years.  The  owners 
are  not  a  shifting  population  but  have  a  fixed  abode  a  suf- 
ficient length  of  time  to  make  possible  a  real  community 
development.  Besides,  they  are  not  burdened  with  the 
heavy  expense  and  loss  from  breakage  that  moving  neces- 
sarily entails. 

For  tenants  the  average  number  of  years  on  one  farm  is 
4.1  years.  As  compared  with  owners  the  time  is  very  much 
shorter,  but  when  compared  with  the  time  that  tenants  in 
one-crop  communities  spend  on  one  farm,  it  is  a  very  much 
longer  period. 

THE  RURAL    FAMILY 

A  home  here  means  the  living  of  a  child  or  children  with 
one  or  both  parents,  a  guardian,  a  relative,  or  foster  parents. 
Some  homes  may  be  broken  by  the  death  of  one  or  both 
parents,  or  otherwise.  Let  us  now  take  up  the  several  fac- 
tors relating  to  the  character  of  the  home,  beginning  with 
the  ages  of  the  family  heads. 

PARENTS.  Those  who  own  their  farms  are  the  oldest,  the 
fathers  averaging  50.1  years  and  the  mothers  45.7  years;  la- 
borers are  next,  the  fathers  being  41 .7  years  and  the  mothers 
37.1  years;  and  tenants  youngest,  the  fathers  being  39.8 
years  and  the  mothers  34.8  years.  The  number  of  years 
between  the  ages  of  fathers  and  mothers  varies  but  little  in 
the  different  groups,  being  respectively  4.4,  4.6  and  5.0 
years.  The  terms  "owner"  and  "tenant"  are  self-explana- 
tory; a  rural  laborer's  family  lives  in  the  open  country  but 
does  not  own  or  cultivate  any  land  for  itself — it  supports 
itself  through  its  labor  for  others. 

Farmers  ordinarily  pass  successively  from  laborers  to 
tenants,  and  then  to  owners.  This  process  takes  place 
whenever  the  accumulation  of  capital  in  the  one  stage  is 
sufficient  to  meet  the  requirements  to  operate  in  the  next. 


THE  RURAL  HOME  17 

This  would  mean,  then,  that  owners  should  be  the  oldest, 
tenants  next,  and  laborers  the  youngest.  The  findings  show 
the  process  to  be  normal  except  that  laborers  are  older  than 
tenants ;  the  reason  is  that  the  laborers  in  these  communities 
are  not  strictly  a  farm  labor  group  but  should  be  more  prop- 
erly classed  as  industrial  laborers.  In  all  probability  the 
majority  of  them  will  never  become  farm  tenants  or  owners 
but  will  remain  a  permanent  industrial  group  in  the  country. 

About  7  per  cent  of  owner,  n  per  cent  of  tenant  and  12 
per  cent  of  laborer  couples  have  no  children  of  their  own, 
of  relatives  or  of  strangers. 

CHILDREN  AT  HO'ME.  Information  concerning  the  number 
of  children  per  family  was  under  two  headings — children 
at  home  and  children  away  from  home.  For  each  of  these 
groups  sex  and  marital  conditions  are  given  in  the  following 
age  groups:  1-6  years  (pre-school  age),  7-15  years  (com- 
pulsory school  age),  16-21  years,  and  over  21  years.  In 
the  657  homes  visited  there  is  a  total  of  1,935  children  at 
home  of  whom  82  are  grandchildren,  and  61  either  more 
distantly  or  not  at  all  related. 

Owner  couples  have  .72  children  of  pre-school  age,  1.19 
of  compulsory  school  age,  .51  from  16-21  years,  and  .45  over 
21  years  of  age,  or  a  total  of  2.87  children  per  family  of 
whom  1.49  are  boys  and  1.38,  girls. 

Tenant  couples  have  1.25  children  of  pre-school  age,  1.66 
of  compulsory  school  age,  .61  from  16-21  years,  and  .13 
over  21  years  of  age,  or  a  total  of  3.71  per  family  of  whom 
2.0  are  boys  and  1.71,  girls. 

Laborer  couples  have  .98  children  of  pre-school  age,  1.25 
of  compulsory  school  age,  .36  from  16-21  years,  and  .13  over 
21  years  of  age,  or  a  total  of  2.71  per  family  of  whom  1.53 
are  boys  and  1.18,  girls. 

One- fourth  of  all  the  owners'  children  at  home  are  of  pre- 
school age  and  one-third  each  of  tenants'  and  laborers',  but 
tenants  have  nearly  74  per  cent  more  children  in  this  age 
group  than  owners  have,  and  27  per  cent  more  than  laborers 
have. 


18  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

The  children  of  compulsory  school  age  form  the  largest 
group  for  each  class  of  family.  The  number  makes  up  41 
per  cent  of  owners'  children  and  45  per  cent  each  of  laborers' 
and  tenants',  but  here  again  tenants  have  actually  more 
children  than  either  owners  or  laborers,  having  respectively 
40  and  35  per  cent  more. 

As  to  children  at  home  who  are  16  years  of  age  and  over, 
owners  have  .96,  tenants  .94,  and  laborers  .49  per  family  on 
the  average.  In  this  age  group  ten,  one,  and  three,  respec- 
tively, per  hundred  are  married  and  live  at  home.  These 
children  above  16  years  of  age  are  old  enough  to  contribute 
something  at  least  towards  their  maintenance. 

The  important  thing  to  consider  here  is  the  number  of 
children  under  16  years  of  age,  of  whom  tenants  have  2.91, 
laborers  2.21  and  owners  1.91  per  family.  _It  is  in  this 
period  that  the  rights  of  childhood  must  be  made  secure. 
Theirs  is  the  right  to  grow  up  healthy  and  strong,  to  get  the 
essentials  of  an  education,  and  to  play.  The  economic  func- 
tions of  the  home  rest  entirely  upon  the  parents  until  their 
children  have  passed  the  period  of  childhood  and  under  no 
,  circumstances  except  in  an  emergency  to  save  a  crop  should 
such  young  children  be  compelled  to  help  assume  the  burden 
of  making  a  living.  Children  should  learn  to  work  but  the 
primary  purpose  of  the  work  they  do  should  be  educational 
and  disciplinary,  not  productive.  From  the  figures  just  pre- 
sented it  is  evident  that  because  of  the  number  of  children  in 
their  families,  tenants  have  most  difficulty,  laborers  next,  and 
owners  least,  in  insuring  childhood  its  rights;  but  tenant 
parents  are  the  youngest  of  the  three  groups  and  owner 
parents  the  oldest,  and  for  this  reason  tenant  parents  should 
be  able  to  assume  the  heaviest  tasks  in  caring  for  children. 
While  they  by  reason  of  their  ages,  are  able  to  work  the 
hardest  to  make  childhood  safe,  yet  they  need  more  money 
than  the  other  groups  to  accomplish  this  because  they  have 
more  children.  If  income  alone  is  considered,  then  tenant 
parents  should  have  the  highest  return,  laborers  next,  and 
owners  least.  However,  the  order  is  just  the  reverse — the 


Club  girls  with  county  agent  demonstrating  to  visitors  at  the  fair  how 
team  work  makes  for  efficiency  in  canning  their  products 


Home  activity  of  i6-year-old 
girl,  Four-H  Club  member, 
engaged  in  a  sewing  project 
competition 


Another  i6-year-old  girl  with  no 
outside  interests.  Her  "leisure 
time"  is  spent  in  caring  for 
younger  brothers  and  sisters 


THE  RURAL  HOME  19 

findings  show  that  owners  have  the  highest  return,  laborers 
next,  and  tenants  the  least.  Income  will  be  taken  up  follow- 
ing the  discussion  of  work,  since  work  is  the  chief  means 
by  which  income  is  obtained. 

CHILDREN  AWAY  FROM  HOME.  The  number  of  children 
under  16  years  of  age  away  from  home  is  practically  negligi- 
ble, being  only  .03  for  owners,  .07  for  tenants,  and  .05  for 
laborers  per  family.  The  number  16-21  years  of  age — .27, 
.16,  and  .07  respectively — is  not  large.  Those  over  21  years 
of  age  average  1.43  for  owner,  .45  for  tenant,  and  .42  for 
laborer  families. 

For  owners,  the  total  number  of  children  away  from  home 
averages  1.73  per  family.  The  number  of  girls  is  slightly 
greater  than  that  of  boys.  Three-fourths  of  the  boys  and 
85  per  cent  of  the  girls  are  married. 

For  tenants,  the  total  number  of  children  away  from  home 
averages  per  family  .68.  The  number  of  girls  is  .41  and 
boys,  .27.  Only  45  per  cent  of  the  boys  are  married  as 
against  80  per  cent  of  the  girls. 

For  laborers,  the  average  is  .54  of  whom  .30  are  boys  and 
.24  girls.  Seventy  per  cent  of  the  boys  and  two-thirds  of  the 
girls  are  married. 

This  makes  the  total  number  of  children  living  per  fam- 
ily, for  owners  4.60,  for  tenants  4.39  and  for  laborers  only 

3-25- 

CHILDREN  DEAD.  In  these  same  families  owners  have  lost 
by  death  an  average  of  .86  children,  tenants  .56,  and  laborers 
.74.  Of  children  dead,  68  per  cent  of  the  owners',  80  per 
cent  of  the  tenants'  and  70  per  cent  of  the  laborers'  died 
before  they  reached  five  years  of  age  but  the  difference  in 
the  average  number  of  deaths  under  five  years  of  age — for 
owners  .59,  tenants  .43,  and  laborers  .52 — is  not  strikingly 
great.  The  great  majority  of  the  deaths  of  children  in  each 
class  of  family  occurred  under  five  years  of  age. 

The  average  ages  of  owner,  laborer,  and  tenant  mothers 
are  respectively,  45.7,  37.1,  and  34.8  years  and  these  mothers 
have  borne  respectively  5.46,  3.99,  and  4.95  children.  The 


20  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

indications  are  that  the  tenant  mother  will  have  borne  as 
many  children  as  the  owner  mother  has  borne  when  she 
reaches  the  age  of  45  but  that  the  laborer  mother  will  not 
have  borne  as  many  as  either  of  the  others  by  that  time. 
The  laborer  mother  is  now  2.3  years  older  than  the  tenant 
mother  and  has  borne  an  average  of  .96  children  less. 

WORK 

Work  is  an  obligation  placed  upon  all  parents,  for  with- 
out it  there  can  be  no  production ;  without  production  there 
can  be  no  income  in  the  vast  majority  of  families ;  and  with- 
out income  none  of  the  essentials  of  life.  This  applies  to 
families  regardless  of  where  they  live.  What  kind  of  work 
does  the  rural  family  do?  For  convenience  of  discussion  let 
us  divide  its  work  into  two  classes — farm  work  and  other 
work. 

FARM  WORK.  The  preparation  of  the  soil,  planting,  culti- 
vating and  harvesting  of  crops  and  the  care  of  live  stock 
are,  of  course,  the  most  important  forms  of  work  of  the 
countryside  in  the  regions  studied.  The  character  of  the 
work  varies  in  accordance  with  the  type  of  farming  and  the 
kind  of  tenure — that  is,  whether  the  workers  are  owners, 
tenants,  or  laborers. 

General  grain  farming  is  the  most  important  type  and  corn 
the  chief  crop  for  both  owners  and  tenants.  In  this  study, 
86  per  cent  of  the  owners  and  all  but  one  of  the  tenants 
raised  corn,  averaging  per  family  246  bushels  for  the  former 
and  637  bushels  for  the  latter ;  owners  averaged  33  bushels 
per  acre  and  tenants  36  bushels.  The  next  most  universally 
grown  crop  is  potatoes,  averaging  65  bushels  per  owner 
family  and  83  bushels  per  tenant  family.  Hay  and  wheat 
are  next  in  importance ;  the  acreage  per  family  and  the  yield 
per  acre  for  each  of  these  two  is  greater  for  tenants  than 
for  owners.  Some  communities  emphasize  special  crops 
such  as  fruit,  potatoes,  tomatoes  or  tobacco,  but  in  no  in- 
stance is  their  cultivation  so  exclusive  as  to  make  a  one-crop 
system.  General  grain  crops  are  grown  in  all  these  com- 


THE  RURAL  HOME  21 

munities.  In  the  fruit  sections  the  orchards  are  practically 
all  handled  by  owners  or  their  salaried  managers,  with  hired 
labor,  leaving  the  grain  farming  to  be  carried  on  by  tenants. 

Live-stock  farming  is  the  next  most  important  type.  In 
some  sections  where  the  land  is  too  rough  for  general  grain 
farming,  sheep  and  cattle  are  grazed,  and  in  others  where 
the  land  permits  the  raising  of  some  feed  stuffs,  dairying  is 
carried  on.  According  to  the  figures,  owners  on  the  whole 
are  slightly  more  interested  in  live-stock  farming  than  ten- 
ants are  (see  table  in  appendix).  There  are  very  few 
tenants  engaged  in  live-stock  farming,  particularly  where  it 
is  of  the  grazing  type.  On  the  other  hand,  tenants  in  grain 
farming  communities  average  more  live  stock  except  sheep 
and  "other  cattle"  than  owners  do,  but  the  difference  is  not 
sufficient  to  offset  the  greater  number  of  sheep  and  "other 
cattle"  which  both  grain  and  live-stock  owners  have  and 
which  are  the  important  factors  in  live-stock  farming. 

The  work  of  the  grain  farmer  is  undoubtedly  more  irk- 
some than  that  of  the  live-stock  farmer.  The  operators 
of  steep  hillside  farms  must  do  the  greater  part  of  their 
work  by  hand  while  those  on  the  more  level  farms  can  use 
labor-saving  machinery. 

Farm  laborers  are  most  numerous  in  orcharding  com- 
munities. In  fact,  in  none  but  orcharding  communities  can 
the  laborers  really  be  called  farm  laborers.  In  live-stock 
communities  laborers  are  engaged  a  part  of  the  year  upon 
general  farm  work,  while  in  grain  farming  communities  they 
do  farm  work  only  if  there  is  no  other  work  available.  In 
some  communities  they  have  practically  ceased  to  do  any 
farm  work. 

OTHER  WORK.  It  has  quite  generally  been  thought  that 
residence  in  the  open  country  necessarily  meant  a  farming 
life  but  the  findings  in  this  study  show  clearly  that  not  only 
are  there  many  people  living  in  the  open  country  who  do 
no  farm  work  at  all  but  also  that  much  of  the  time  of  farm 
people  themselves  is  spent  in  work  other  than  farm  work, 
both  skilled  and  unskilled. 

Skilled  Work.    In  this  field  country  dwellers  work  as 


22  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

machinists,  blacksmiths,  carpenters,  brickmasons,  miners,  oil 
workers,  sawyers,  engineers,  firemen,  teachers,  surveyors, 
doctors,  veterinarians,  bookkeepers,  contractors,  merchants, 
bankers,  auto  repairmen,  and  public  officials.  Skilled  work- 
ers may  be  grouped  into  two  classes — those  who  own  and 
operate  a  business  or  practise  a  profession,  and  those  who 
work  for  some  one  else.  The  latter  are  for  the  most  part 
employed  in  large  industrial  operations  such  as  mines,  quar- 
ries, oil  and  gas  fields,  and  timber  cutting.  An  increasingly 
large  number  of  all  these  skilled  workers  do  nothing  but  fol- 
low their  trade  or  profession.  Many  in  each  group  own 
farm  land,  but  those  in  the  first  class  usually  rent  out  their 
farms  or  handle  them  with  hired  labor,  while  those  in  the 
latter  operate  their  own  farms  in  season  and  follow  their 
trade  during  the  rest  of  the  year.  In  all  except  orcharding 
communities  there  is  more  or  less  time  when  the  services 
.of  the  family  are  not  needed  for  the  crops,  hence  other  than 
farm  work  can  be  taken  up.  It  would  be  an  ideal  situation 
for  the  farmers  to  have  opportunities  for  other  kinds  of 
work  when  the  farm  demands  had  been  met  but  unfortu- 
nately business  interests  have  little  consideration  for  agri- 
cultural interests — the  tendency  is  for  such  outside  business 
to  absorb  an  increasingly  large  amount  of  the  farmer's  time. 
In  two  communities  this  development  has  gone  so  far  that 
farming  has  become  decidedly  a  side  issue  and  the  land  is 
reverting  to  its  original  state,  and  in  two  other  communities 
this  tendency  is  well  marked.  In  none  of  these  four  com- 
munities are  there  any  tenants  at  all.  The  importance  of 
the  food  supply  is  so  great  that  good  farm  land  ought  not 
to  be  permitted  to  grow  up  in  weeds  and  brush.  One  of  the 
biggest  questions  in  the  country  to-day  is,  can  agriculture 
and  industry  be  adjusted  to  each  other  without  injustice  to 
either? 

Unskilled  Work.  In  so  far  as  numbers  are  concerned 
there  are  many  more  owners  doing  unskilled  work  than 
skilled  work.  This  is  for  the  most  part  in  and  about  mines, 
quarries,  oil  and  gas  fields,  timber  camps,  and  public  works, 


THE  RURAL  HOME  23 

especially  road  building.  The  effect  of  this  work  upon  the 
business  of  farming  is  not  so  bad  as  that  of  the  skilled  work 
because  the  wages  are  not  so  high  and  the  workers  are  not 
so  likely  to  continue  in  it,  if  their  crops  need  attention. 

Tenants  work  away  from  the  farm  slightly  less  than  do 
owners.  Since  tenancy  is  generally  found  in  purely  agri- 
cultural communities,  there  is  not  the  opportunity  for  tenants 
to  become  skilled  workers  unless  they  go  away  from  their 
homes  and  this,  as  a  rule,  they  will  not  do  because  of  the 
expense  of  going  back  and  forth.  They  can  not  operate  a 
business  or  practise  a  profession  and  at  the  same  time  work 
the  land,  consequently  their  alternative  is  unskilled  work 
when  not  farming.  Road  building  or  other  public  work  is 
especially  attractive,  and  has  certainly  been  a  boon  to  many 
tenants.  In  industrialized  rural  communities  they  have 
ceased  to  be  tenants  and  are  now  the  industrial  laborers. 

For  those  who  neither  own  nor  rent  land,  farm  work  is 
only  incidental  in  the  case  of  all  except  those  who  follow 
orcharding.  This  has  given  rise  to  a  new  class  called  indus- 
trial laborers.  About  one-fourth  are  skilled  workers  and 
practically  all  of  them,  both  skilled  and  unskilled,  work  in 
industrial  enterprises.  Most  of  them  own  an  acre  or  so  of 
land,  the  house  in  which  they  live  and  a  few  live  stock.  Of 
the  96  laborer  families  visited,  85  per  cent  had  chickens,  43 
per  cent  a  cow,  and  68  per  cent  one  or  more  hogs.  These 
people  have  fairly  continuous  employment  and  can  and  do 
live  reasonably  well. 

Farm  work  is  by  all  odds  the  most  important  kind  of  work 
that  rural  children  do.  The  younger  ones  are  generally 
excluded  from  industrial  work  as  found  in  the  country. 
Nevertheless  industry  indirectly  is  placing  a  heavy  burden 
on  the  children  by  using  so  much  of  the  time  of  their  parents. 
This  applies  to  the  children  of  both  skilled  and  unskilled 
owner  parents,  particularly  the  former.  It  is  manifestly 
unfair  to  the  children  because  not  only  is  the  work  of  run- 
ning the  farm  too  heavy  but  also  the  responsibility  too  great. 
The  condition  is  especially  aggravated  in  the  sand-mining 


24  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

communities  where  the  men  work  all  day  in  the  mines  and 
the  women  and  children  do  the  farm  work. 

The  children  of  tenants,  of  course,  help  with  the  farm 
work.  While  their  parents  are  more  given  to  grain-farm 
work,  yet  the  children  have  a  greater  opportunity  to  work 
along  with  them.  Thus  the  greater  responsibility  placed 
upon  owner  children  corresponds  to  the  greater  amount  of 
work  tenant  children  do. 

In  the  grain-farming  communities  the  children  of  laborers 
may  work  with  their  parents  or  hire  out  independently.  In 
the  communities  where  special  crops  are  grown  there  are 
ample  opportunities  for  them  to  be  employed.  They  are 
extensively  used  in  the  picking  and  packing  of  fruit.  In 
rural  communities  where  parents  are  at  work  in  industrial 
enterprises,  their  children  are  largely  confined  to  a  life  of 
idleness. 

INCOME 

Income  is  the  end  sought  by  means  of  work.  A  deter- 
mining factor  of  great  importance  in  any  home  is  the  amount 
of  money  it  receives.  An  inadequate  income  means  that 
some  of  the  essentials  of  childhood  must  be  neglected  but 
it  does  not  follow  that  an  adequate  income  necessarily  means 
for  children  good  health,  good  education,  good  means  of 
recreation,  beautiful  and  well-equipped  houses,  adequate 
protection  of  water  supply,  suitable  methods  of  sewage  dis- 
posal, and  plenty  of  reading  matter.  In  both  the  adequately 
and  inadequately  financed  homes,  rural  parents  do  not  have 
very  definite  knowledge  of  what  the  needs  of  childhood 
are.  Until  very  recently  the  slogan  for  rural  development 
has  been  "Give  the  farmer  more  money  and  he  will  take  care 
of  himself."  Accordingly  energies  were  bent  towards  find- 
ing ways  and  means  to  increase  production.  Rotation, 
legumes,  diversified  crops  and  better  live  stock  were  the 
things  emphasized.  These  things  are  not  to  be  decried,  for 
they  have  had  and  are  still  having  very  beneficial  effects. 


THE  RURAL  HOME  25 

Where  farmers  are  following  this  advice,  their  incomes  have 
undoubtedly  been  increased.  Diversification  is  tending  to 
stabilize  and  make  possible  a  more  even  distribution  of 
income  throughout  the  entire  year.  The  failure  of  a  crop 
in  a  many-crop  system  does  not  mean  so  great  a  loss  as  in 
a  one-crop  system.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  enable  the  farmer 
to  earn  more  money,  for  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  his 
family  depends  upon  the  use  he  makes  of  his  increase.  It  is 
true  he  can  not  use  more  money  unless  more  is  earned  but 
experience  is  showing  that  he  must  be  taught  how  to  use  his 
money  intelligently.  To  illustrate:  the  farmer's  knowledge 
of  health  is  largely  negative.  If  he  or  a  member  of  his 
family  falls  ill  he  will  call  a  doctor  and  do  everything  in 
his  power  to  elffect  a  cure.  It  has  not  occurred  to  him  that 
the  shallow,  unprotected  well,  or  the  open  spring  or  river 
from  which  he  gets  his  drinking  water  may  be  the  cause  of 
the  illness.  As  a  rule  he  sees  no  danger  in  the  open  privy — 
in  many  instances  having  no  privy  of  any  kind — or  in  the 
lack  of  screens  on  doors  and  windows.  A  fly  is  simply  a 
nuisance  at  meal  time,  or  it  may  disturb  his  rest  if  per- 
chance he  takes  a  nap  at  the  noon  hour  while  the  horses  feed. 
Kinds,  amounts  and  varieties  of  food  are  little  thought  of  as 
having  any  bearing  on  health.  The  importance  of  milk  in 
the  diet  of  children  is  not  understood  and  its  absence  has 
no  particular  significance  to  the  average  rural  parent. 

The  farmer's  income  is  perhaps  more  variable  than  that  of 
any  other  group  of  workers  because  it  depends  on  the 
amount  he  produces  and  the  sale  price.  The  latter  is  deter- 
mined by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  influenced,  of 
course,  by  the  effectiveness  of  his  marketing  methods.  In 
this  study  the  gross  income  consists  of  two  parts — farm 
income  and  supplementary  income. 

The  farm  income  is  the  total  amount  of  money  received 
from  the  sale  of  crops  and  live  stock;  and  supplementary 
income  is  the  amount  received  from  the  sale  of  such  items 
as  timber,  lumber,  posts,  coal,  oil  and  gas  (including  rent- 
als), meat  and  flour,  merchandise,  and  from  land  rentals, 


26  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

skilled  and  unskilled  labor  and  from  some  miscellaneous 
items  such  as  profit  on  keeping  boarders,  pensions,  etc. 

Under  expenses  is  included  the  amount  spent  for  labor, 
repairs,  feed,  seed,  fertilizer,  stock,  rentals,  and  miscellane- 
ous items  which  means  only  the  amount  spent  for  barrels, 
crates,  boxes  and  spraying  materials  among  orchard  farmers. 

Farm  income  less  expenses  plus  supplementary  income  is 
the  net  income.  This  term  as  used  in  this  report  is  not  a  net 
income  in  its  generally  accepted  sense  because  all  the  items 
that  enter  into  a  real  net  income  have  not  been  taken  into 
consideration.  The  important  items  not  considered  are 
interest  on  investment,  taxes,  permanent  repairs,  and  insur- 
ance. These  would  affect  the  income  of  owners  more  than 
that  of  tenants  or  laborers.  It  was  impossible  to  get  all  of 
these  items  because  of  the  limits  of  time  and  the  large  num- 
ber of  families  visited.  Furthermore  it  would  serve  the 
purpose  of  the  study  no  better  to  have  all  of  these  items  in. 
Here  the  net  income  simply  means  the  amount  of  money 
rural  families  have  for  all  purposes  from- the  sale  of  crops 
and  live  stock  after  the  afore-mentioned  expenses  have  been 
taken  out,  and  from  the  supplementary  sources  previously 
indicated. 

The  average  net  income  for  owners'  families  is  $1,000, 
for  laborer  families  $756,  and  for  tenant  families  $736. 

Keeping  in  mind  that  the  tenant  family  consists  of  3.71 
children,  the  owner  2.87  and  the  laborer  2.71,  we  find,  by 
adding  two  adults  to  each  family,  that  tenants  have  per 
person  $129,  laborers  $160,  and  owners  $205  per  year. 
Owners  have  a  greater  unaccounted-for  farm  expense  com- 
ing out  of  this  than  either  of  the  other  groups.  So  the  dif- 
ference in  the  annual  family  income  is  not  so  striking  as  at 
first  appears,  although  owners  have  the  highest,  laborers 
next,  and  tenants  the  lowest.  When  the  food  the  farm  con- 
tributes to  the  family  table  is  also  taken  into  consideration 
it  would  seem  that  the  country  child  ought  not  to  fare  badly, 
but  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  study  relates  to  a 
period  when  prices  were  high  and  it  is  to  be  questioned 


THE  RURAL  HOME  27 

whether  the  average  income  from  year  to  year  would  be  as 
great. 

For  owners,  farm  sources  provide  52  per  cent  of  the  net 
income  and  supplementary  sources  48  per  cent.  For 
tenants,  the  per  cents  are  63  and  37,  and  for  laborers  3  and 
97,  respectively.  Of  the  owners'  farm  income  54  per  cent 
comes  from  live  stock  and  46  per  cent  from  crops.  The 
tenants'  percentages  are  56  and  44,  and  the  laborers'  97  and 
3,  respectively. 

Owners'  supplementary  income  is  made  up  24  per  cent 
from  skilled  labor,  41  per  cent  from  unskilled  labor,  and  35 
per  cent  from  the  other  supplementary  items.  Tenants  have 
less  than  one  per  cent  of  their  supplementary  income  from 
skilled  labor,  83  per  cent  from  unskilled  labor,  and  16  per 
cent  from  the  other  supplementary  items.  The  laborers 
have  32  per  cent  from  skilled  labor,  61  per  cent  from  un- 
skilled and  7  per  cent  from  the  other  items. 

These  figures  show  that  tenants  depend  a  little  more  upon 
the  farm  for  their  income  than  owners  do,  the  per  cents 
being  63  and  52  respectively.  Live-stock  farming,  including 
poultry  raising  and  dairying,  is  for  both  owners  and  tenants 
a  little  more  profitable  than  grain  farming,  as  indicated  by 
the  return,  but  live-stock  farming  furnishes  practically  all 
of  the  laborers'  farm  income  which  in  the  main  is  derived 
from  the  sale  of  chickens,  eggs  and  butter.  The  meagre 
farm  income  which  the  laborers  have  simply  serves  to  illus- 
trate how  little  this  group  of  country  dwellers  depend  upon 
their  own  activities  as  farmers  to  raise  things  which  can  be 
turned  into  money,  thereby  supplementing  their  regular 
income.  They  live  in  the  country  but  are  not  interested  in 
farming. 

It  is  in  the  method  of  obtaining  the  supplementary  income 
that  there  is  considerable  difference  among  owners,  tenants 
and  laborers.  The  amount  for  each  group  is  $481,  $273,  and 
$735  respectively.  Nearly  one-fourth  of  the  owners'  and  one- 
third  of  the  laborers'  amounts  come  from  skilled  labor, 
whereas  the  tenants  have  less  than  one  per  cent  from  this 


28  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

source.  The  laborers*  income  from  skilled  work  is  more 
than  twice  as  much  as  that  of  the  owners'.  The  unskilled 
labor  incomes  are  $197,  $226  and  $448,  being  41,  83  and  61 
per  cents  of  the  total  supplementary  incomes  of  owners, 
tenants  and  laborers  respectively.  The  other  items  in  the 
supplementary  income  amount  to  more  than  three  times  as 
much  for  owners  as  for  either  tenants  or  laborers.  For 
owners  this  amount  is  derived,  in  the  main,  from  the  sale  of 
lumber,  oil  and  gas,  merchandising,  and  land  rentals, 
whereas  for  tenants  it  is  derived  from  merchandising,  sale  of 
meat  and  flour,  and  miscellaneous  items  such  as  honey  and 
furs,  and  as  profit  on  keeping  boarders. 

HOUSING  AND   SANITATION 

The  income  for  any  given  year  does  not  necessarily  deter- 
mine the  kinds  and  sizes  of  rural  houses,  their  state  of 
repair,  whether  they  are  screened,  what  the  home  atmos- 
phere is,  what  the  water  supply  is,  or  whether  each  family 
has  a  toilet,  but  it  can  be  taken  as  indicative  of  what  the 
possibilities  are  in  reference  to  all  these  things  for  tenants, 
owners  and  laborers. 

The  responsibility  for  furnishing  these  things  rests  almost 
wholly  upon  the  owners.  They  must  furnish  them  not  only 
for  themselves,  but  also  for  tenants  and  for  all  laborers 
except  those  who  own  their  homes.  Since  this  is  the  case, 
the  question  arises  whether  they  do  better  for  themselves 
than  for  tenants  and  laborers. 

HOUSES.  The  prevailing  type  of  house  is  the  so-called 
frame,  commonly  referred  to  as  the  "Jenny  Lind."  It  is 
not  a  framed  house  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  for  the 
timbers  are  not  notched  and  mortised  together  but  are 
simply  nailed  in  place.  This  makes  the  process  of  building 
easier,  simpler  and  cheaper  but  the  building  is  not  as  sub- 
stantial as  it  would  be  were  it  framed.  Some  are  plastered 
inside  and  others  simply  boarded  up  with  plain  smooth  pine 
lumber.  The  majority,  even  the  modern  ones,  are  built 


THE  RURAL  HOME  29 

with  the  open  fireplace  which  is  the  chief  means  of  heating. 
Eighty-six  per  cent  of  owners',  80  per  cent  of  tenants'  and 
78  per  cent  of  laborers'  homes  are  of  this  type. 

The  log  house  is  next  in  importance.  These  are  old 
houses,  having  been  built  many  years  ago  when  sawed  lum- 
ber was  not  so  easy  to  get.  In  the  majority  the  logs  have 
been  hewn  out  with  broadax  and  adz,  although  some  are 
seen  in  which  the  rough  timbers  without  any  dressing  have 
been  used.  The  ends  of  the  logs  are  notched  so  as  to  reduce 
the  size  of  the  cracks.  The  chinks  are  filled  in  with  wooden 
wedges  and  covered  over  with  plaster  which  is  often  referred 
to  as  "dobbin."  The  houses  are  usually  unfinished  inside 
and  all  have  the  traditional  fireplace.  The  very  nature  of 
their  construction  makes  it  impossible  to  modernize  them 
and  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  uncomfortable  and  unsani- 
tary. Eleven  per  cent  of  the  owners,  19  per  cent  of  the 
tenants,  and  17  per  cent  of  the  laborers  occupy  this  kind  of 
house. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  nine  owner  families  had  "both 
log  and  frame"  houses ;  four,  brick  houses  and  one,  a  stone 
house.  One  tenant  family  and  one  laborer  family  each  live 
in  a  brick  house  and  four  laborer  families  in  stucco  houses. 

Of  greater  importance  than  the  kind  of  house  is  the 
number  of  rooms.  Owners'  houses  average  5.84  rooms, 
tenants'  5.77,  and  laborers'  4.79.  Stating  this  in  terms  of 
the  number  of  rooms  per  person,  we  find  that  owners  have 
i. 20,  tenants  i.oi,  and  laborers  1.02. 

In  order  to  get  some  idea  of  the  home  atmosphere,  the 
writer  made  an  effort  to  classify  the  general  appearance  of 
the  homes  as  good,  fair  or  poor.  On  this  basis  owners  had 
213  good,  153  fair  and  119  poor;  tenants  25  good,  27  fair 
and  22  poor ;  laborers  30  good,  40  fair,  and  26  poor.  Sim- 
ilarly the  state  of  repair  was  tabulated  for  the  three  groups 
as  follows:  owners,  good  235,  fair  144  and  poor  106;  ten- 
ants, good  24,  fair  29,  and  poor  21 ;  laborers,  good  30,  fair 
45  and  poor  21. 

One-half    of    owner    houses    are    screened    and    partly 


30  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

screened,  while  47  per  cent  of  tenant  and  39  per  cent  of 
laborer  houses  are  so  equipped. 

Twenty  per  cent  each  of  owner  and  tenant  and  24  per 
cent  of  laborer  families  have  no  toilets  or  privies  of  any  kind. 


WATER  SUPPLY 

Ten  per  cent  of  owner  houses  have  water  in  them — 
for  the  most  part  this  means  in  the  kitchen  only, — while 
only  one  tenant  and  four  laborer  families  report  this  con- 
venience. The  prevailing  source  of  water  supply  is  the  well, 
averaging  less  than  50  feet  deep.  The  wells  are  of  two 
types — dug  and  bored, — and  are  about  equally  divided. 

Dug  Wells.  These  are  usually  about  five  feet  across  and 
quite  shallow.  The  walls  are  of  brick  or  rough  stone,  laid 
up  loosely  without  cement  or  other  binding  material.  No 
stone  or  brick  is  placed  in  the  bottom  and  the  top  is  fre- 
quently uncovered.  From  some  the  water  is  drawn  by  hand 
with  a  bucket  attached  to  the  end  of  a  rope;  from  others, 
by  means  of  a  pump ;  and  from  still  others  by  means  of  a 
windlass  with  its  traditional  moss-covered  bucket.  These 
wells,  often  located  at  the  spot  where  the  prongs  of  the 
forked  peach  twig  would  turn  down — a  sure  indication  to 
some  ignorant  and  superstitious  pioneers  that  water  was  to 
be  found  there  and  there  only — are  frequently  located  far 
from  the  houses.  They  are  the  heritage  of  the  past,  unsan- 
itary and  a  positive  menace  to  the  health  of  rural  people. 

Bored  Wells.  The  bored  well  is  slowly  superseding  the  dug 
well.  Its  bore  is  from  five  to  eight  inches  across  and  its 
depth — usually  to  the  rock — is  much  greater  than  that  of  the 
dug  well.  The  hole  is  cased  up  with  metal  casing.  In  the 
majority,  the  water  is  drawn  by  means  of  a  pump,  although 
not  infrequently  by  hand  or  a  windlass.  When  the  top  is 
properly  covered  the  bored  well  ought  to  furnish  a  reason- 
ably sanitary-  water  supply.  Forty-eight  per  cent  of  owner, 
42  per  cent  of  tenant,  and  33  per  cent  of  laborer  homes  have 
wells  either  bored  or  dug. 

Springs.     Next  in  importance  is  the  spring  which  in  the 


THE  RURAL  HOME  31 

country  is  liberally  interpreted.  A  spring  may  be  a  fountain 
of  water  springing  out  of  the  ground ;  or  a  tiny  stream  with 
an  underground  source  somewhere  above,  coming  down  the 
side  of  the  hill  or  mountain;  or  a  small  stream  commonly 
referred  to  as  a  branch,  fed  by  many  of  these  tiny  streams ; 
or  a  creek;  and  cases  were  found  in  which  a  river  was 
referred  to  as  a  spring.  This  so-called  spring  water  may  or 
may  not  be  safe.  All  depends  upon  the  opportunities  for 
pollution.  Generally  speaking,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
farther  the  families  are  from  the  source — the  real  spring — 
the  greater  the  pollution.  Since  very  few  families  get  their 
water  supply  from  real  springs,  so-called  spring  water  is  to 
be  condemned  as  unsanitary.  Thirty-seven  per  cent  of 
owner,  28  per  cent  of  tenant  and  46  per  cent  of  laborer  fam- 
ilies reported  the  use  of  springs. 

Cisterns.  The  remainder  of  the  families  (15  per  cent 
owner,  30  per  cent  tenant  and  21  per  cent  laborer)  used  cis- 
terns. The  nature  of  the  construction  of  cisterns  makes 
possible  the  keeping  out  of  seepage  pollution,  but  since  there 
are  no  filters  the  water  may  become  contaminated,  especially 
if  the  gutters  and  downspouts  are  not  properly  cared  for. 

As  a  rule,  springs  are  farthest  from  the  house  and  dug 
wells  somewhat  closer.  Bored  wells  and  cisterns  are  near 
the  house.  Owner  families  carried  their  drinking  water  an 
average  of  61  yards,  tenants  38  yards,  and  laborers  in 
yards.  Their  toilets  are  located  83  yards,  76  yards  and  104 
yards  respectively  from  the  water  supply. 

In  summing  up  the  findings  in  reference  to  the  houses  and 
their  outward  equipment,  it  is  evident  that  owner  children, 
taken  as  a  whole,  have  the  best  homes,  tenant  children 
probably  next,  and  laborer  children  worst,  but  there  is  no 
strikingly  great  difference  between  the  best  and  the  worst. 
The  difference  seems  to  be  about  what  the  difference  in  their 
incomes  would  lead  one  to  expect.  There  is  considerable 
variation  among  the  different  types  of  communities,  but 
where  there  is  a  high  or  low  standard  for  one  class  of  occu- 
pants, it  is  about  equally  as  high  or  low  for  the  others. 

One  can  not  travel  far,  however,  in  the  open  country  and 


32  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

not  be  impressed  with  the  great  differences  in  the  outward 
appearance  of  the  homes  as  compared  with  city  homes.  So 
far  as  the  kind  of  house  and  the  number  of  rooms  per  person 
is  concerned,  there  is  probably  not  a  great  deal  of  differ- 
ence. At  least  one  room  per  person  can  hardly  be  said  to 
be  a  crowded  condition.  The  first  striking  difference  that 
meets  the  eye  is  the  general  appearance  of  the  house  and 
its  surroundings — a  thing  that  cannot  be  satisfactorily  re- 
duced to  figures.  The  country  is  for  the  most  part  endowed 
with  natural  beauty  not  only  in  the  formation  of  its  hills 
and  valleys,  its  brooks,  creeks  and  rivers,  but  also  in  its 
wild  life — its  birds,  trees,  flowers,  and  animals  both  domestic 
and  wild.  There  is  scarcely  a  farm  of  any  size  in  the  state 
that  does  not  have  some  spot  from  which  can  be  enjoyed  a 
fine  view,  a  sunrise,  a  sunset,  a  clump  of  trees,  a  patch  of 
flowers,  a  creek,  a  river, — something  beautiful.  Yet  these 
are  not  the  spots  on  which  rural  people  build  their  houses. 
They  choose  sites  without  consideration  of  the  beautiful.  If 
perchance  the  building  spot  should  have  a  tree  or  other  ob- 
ject of  natural  beauty,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  sooner  or 
later  it  will  be  lost  through  wanton  destruction,  carelessness, 
or  neglect.  Many  houses  have  no  fences  around  them,  no 
flowers,  no  lawns,  or  if  they  do  they  are  not  kept  up.  Often- 
times the  houses  are  in  a  bad  state  of  repair  and  unpainted, 
the  yards  are  littered  with  trash  and  the  barn  lots  cluttered 
with  machinery.  Why  this  condition?  Simply  because 
rural  people  have  little,  or  no,  knowledge  of,  or  appreciation 
for  beauty.  In  fact,  they  rather  look  upon  city  people's  use 
of  beauty  as  a  fad.  They  will  tell  you  they  have  no  time  for 
such  things  as  mowing  the  lawn,  caring  for  the  flowers, 
cleaning  up  and  painting;  but  the  real  reason  is  they  see 
nothing  to  be  gained  by  doing  these  things.  Too  often  the 
country  boy  knows  only  the  most  common  of  the  wild  flow- 
ers, birds  and  trees.  He  knows  nothing  of  the  life  history 
of  flowers  and  trees,  and  if  he  runs  across  a  new  one  he 
does  not  know  how  to  find  its  name.  The  history  and 
habits  of  birds  he  does  not  know  at  all.  He  knows  the  wild 


THE  RURAL  HOME  33 

animals  somewhat  better  because  their  bodies  are  good  to 
eat  or  their  pelts  will  bring  a  handsome  price.  A  squirrel 
or  a  quail  is  not  an  object  of  beauty  but  something  to  kill. 
The  pity  of  it  all  is  that  practically  nothing  is  being  done  to 
better  the  situation  and  this  is  an  important  factor  in  creating 
a  dislike  for  country  life. 

The  second  striking  point  of  difference  between  country 
and  city  homes  is  in  the  matter  of  sanitation.  Less  than 
half  of  the  country  houses  are  screened  or  even  partly 
screened.  During  the  hot  summer  days  it  is  impossible  to 
keep  all  the  doors  and  windows  closed  and  it  is  not  uncom- 
mon to  find  the  houses  filled  with  swarms  of  flies.  Espe- 
cially are  they  to  be  found  in  the  kitchen  where  the  food  is 
prepared  and,  in  the  majority  of  rural  homes,  served  and 
eaten.  Frequently  one  member  of  the  family  will  wait  and 
with  a  long  stick  to  the  end  of  which  are  fastened  small 
narrow  strips  of  paper,  keep  the  flies  off  the  table  so  the 
others  can  eat.  The  relationship  between  flies  and  ill  health 
is  unknown  to  the  average  rural  person.  They  do  not  de- 
stroy the  breeding  places  of  flies.  On  the  other  hand, 
through  their  neglect  and  carelessness,  the  best  possible  sort 
of  conditions  under  which  they  may  breed  and  thrive  are 
provided :  on  the  back  porch  or  near  the  back  door  may  be 
found  the  slop  pail  half  filled  with  the  kitchen  garbage; 
the  manure  piles  are  uncovered  and  mudholes  and  hog- 
wallows  are  allowed  to  exist. 

More  than  one  in  five  of  all  the  rural  homes  visited  had 
no  toilets  of  any  kind,  and  nearly  all  the  privies  are  a  serious 
menace  to  health.  Lime  or  other  disinfectant  is  generally 
not  used  and  as  a  rule  the  buildings  are  so  constructed  as 
not  to  meet  a  minimum  standard  of  decency.  They  are 
not  screened  but  open  to  flies,  chickens  and  rodents.  Their 
location  for  the  most  part  is  ill-considered ;  very  often  they 
are  so  situated  that  drainage  will  carry  the  pollution  into 
the  water  supply  or  towards  the  house. 

The  water  supply  is  a  serious  problem  for  country  people. 
In  the  early  days  when  inhabitants  were  few  and  far  be- 


34  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

tween  it  did  not  make  much  difference  how  a  family  dis- 
posed of  its  sewage.  Now  there  are  many  more  people 
in  the  country,  which  of  necessity  means  they  must  live 
closer  together,  but  they  are  still  disposing  of  sewage  with 
utter  disregard  of  what  effect  it  may  have,  not  only  upon 
the  health  of  their  own  families,  but  also  upon  that  of  their 
neighbors.  The  water  got  from  the  so-called  springs — the 
branches,  creeks  and  rivers — and  from  the  dug  wells  is 
especially  dangerous.  Often  people  get  their  drinking  water 
from  the  very  streams  in  which  their  own  hogs  are  wallow- 
ing. 'Many  wells  are  open  for  every  kind  of  pollution  to 
enter.  Why  this  condition?  Here  again  we  must  answer, 
they  do  not  know.  Rural  people,  no  more  than  any  other 
group  of  people,  are  derelict  in  their  duty,  or  indifferent  to 
the  welfare  of  others,  once  they  know,  but  the  value  of 
sanitation  they  do  not  know.  Health  to  them  means  to  get 
well  if  sickness  overtakes  them  but  the  prevention  of  illness 
by  sanitary  measures  is  little  understood  and  almost  un- 
known to  the  average  rural  family.  Education  is  the  only 
solution  and  they  must  be  taught  in  terms  of  dollars  and 
cents  just  as  city  people  have  been  taught.  Until  then  coun- 
try children  can  not  have  the  chance  for  health  that  is  rightly 
theirs. 

FOODS 

Since  it  is  the  business  of  the  farmer  to  produce  food- 
stuffs, the  opinion  has  quite  generally  been  held  that  he 
never  lacks  a  generous  supply  of  wholesome  foods.  Iri 
order  to  ascertain  the  situation,  information  was  got  as  to 
the  production  and  consumption  of  meats,  flour,  meal, 
chickens,  eggs,  potatoes,  and  canned  fruit  and  vegetables. 

Meat.  The  most  important  item  in  the  meat  diet  is  pork. 
For  the  most  part  this  is  raised,  fattened  and  killed  on  the 
farm.  Butchering  time  comes  once  a  year,  usually  in  the 
fall  after  the  cool  weather  sets  in.  The  hams,  shoulders  and 
sides  are  cured  and  form  the  bulk  of  the  meat  supply, 
throughout  the  year.  The  lean  trimmings  from  the  hams, 


THE  RURAL  HOME  35 

shoulders  and  bony  "offalins"  are  made  into  sausage  and  the 
fat  rendered  into  lard.  Country  ham,  however,  is  not  always 
as  succulent  as  popularly  believed. 

The  average  annual  consumption  by  owners  is  708  pounds, 
of  which  49  pounds  are  bought ;  by  tenants  736  pounds,  of 
which  52  pounds  are  bought ;  and  by  laborers  528  pounds,  of 
which  108  pounds  are  bought. 

Chickens.  The  consumption  of  chickens  and  other  fowls 
is  next  in  importance.  Their  greatest  use  is  in  the  late  sum- 
mer and  early  fall,  the  time  when  the  pork  supply  is  running 
low  or  gone.  However,  the  use  of  chickens  as  food  in  the 
country  is  not  so  great  as  is  generally  thought.  The  mar- 
ket price  largely  determines  the  number  rural  families  use, 
for  when  the  price  is  high  the  fowls  are  sold  and  not  eaten. 
Owners  used  during  the  year  an  average  of  31,  tenants  30, 
and  laborers  19. 

Beef.  Very  little  beef  or  other  meats  beside  pork  are  used 
in  the  country.  A  few  families  fatten  and  kill  a  beef  and 
then  sell  a  part  to  their  neighbors.  This  must  be  done  dur- 
ing the  winter  months  as  no  satisfactory  method  has  been 
found  for  its  preservation,  except  refrigeration,  and  this 
country  people  do  not  have.  By  means  of  a  little  education, 
however,  they  could  be  shown  how  to  put  up  cheaply,  and 
care  for  properly,  enough  ice  to  supply  their  needs  during 
the  summer.  In  some  communities  where  the  roads  are 
passable,  local  butchers  from  the  towns  and  villages  are  be- 
ginning to  go  out  into  the  country  with  supplies  of  fresh 
meats.  Owners  use  annually  on  an  average  46  pounds  of 
beef  of  which  18  pounds  are  bought;  tenants  28  pounds  of 
which  one-half  is  bought;  and  laborers  42  pounds  of  which 
39  pounds  are  bought. 

Bread  Stuffs.  Wheat  flour  is  the  chief  item  used  in  mak- 
ing bread.  In  the  early  days  people  who  raised  wheat  took 
it  to  a  mill  and  had  it  ground  into  flour.  With  the  coming 
of  cheap  transportation  an  increasingly  large  number  sold 
their  wheat  and  bought  the  patented  flours,  but  the  present 
high  freight  rates  are  tending  to  reverse  this  and  people 


36  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

are  again  going  to  the  mill  with  their  grist.  Only  two-fifths, 
each,  of  owners  and  tenants,  and  none  of  the  laborers,  raise 
wheat  for  flour.  Owners  consume  annually  on  an  average 
1,053  pounds  of  flour  of  which  55  per  cent  is  bought,  ten- 
ants 1,106  pounds  of  which  43  per  cent  is  bought,  and  labor- 
ers 982  pounds,  all  of  which  is  bought. 

Corn.  This  is  next  in  importance  in  furnishing  the  bread 
supply.  Hot  corn  bread  is  usually  served  at  noon  and  fre- 
quently at  the  evening  meal.  Owners  use  an  average  of 
nine  bushels,  tenants  ten  bushels,  and  laborers  four  bushels. 

Potatoes.  A  very  important  part  of  the  diet  of  rural 
people  is  potatoes.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  them  served 
three  times  a  day.  There  are  only  two  owner,  two  tenant, 
and  one  laborer  families  that  raised  no  potatoes  at  all. 
Owner  and  tenant  families  each  consume  on  an  average  21 
bushels  and  laborers  17  bushels.  In  some  communities 
sweet  potatoes  are  raised  and  used  extensively  but  consid- 
ering the  average  for  all  families  they  are  of  small  conse- 
quence. 

Eggs  and  Milk.  The  consumption  of  eggs  throughout  the 
year  is  not  great.  The  tendency  is  to  discontinue  their 
use  and  sell  them  instead  when  the  price  goes  up,  although 
all  families  who  have  chickens  use  more  or  less  eggs  during 
the  year.  During  the  low  price  periods,  however,  they  use 
so  many  that  they  become  "tired"  of  them,  as  they  say. 
Owners  use  an  average  of  47  dozen  a  year,  tenants  43 
dozen,  and  laborers  30  dozen. 

The  consumption  of  milk  is  an  extremely  hard  factor  to 
estimate.  If  a  family  likes  milk  they  use  it;  if  not,  it  is 
fed  to  the  pigs.  The  number  of  milch  cows — 2.8  for  own- 
ers, 2.6  for  tenants,  and  .6  for  laborers — would  seem  to 
indicate  that  there  is  a  plenteous  supply  of  milk  for  all 
except  possibly  the  laborers ;  but  even  here  a  cow  for  every 
two  families  ought  to  supply  enough  milk  for  at  least  the 
children.  One  difficulty,  however,  is  that  the  cows  are 
usually  dry  in  the  winter. 

Fruits  and  Vegetables  Canned.     The  state  is  wonderfully 


THE  RURAL  HOME  37 

provided  with  fruit  of  all  kinds,  both  cultivated  and  wild. 
There  is  no  excuse  for  any  family  to  be  without  an  adequate 
supply  both  in  and  out  of  season.  Owners  put  up  an  aver- 
age of  177  quarts  of  fruit,  tenants  182  quarts,  and  laborers 
112  quarts.  Nearly  every  home  has  a  garden  although  in 
many  the  supply  of  vegetables  is  not  sufficient,  and  lacks 
variety.  Owners  canned  an  average  of  50  quarts,  tenants 
64  quarts,  and  laborers  41  quarts. 

By  stating  these  different  items  of  food  in  terms  of  the 
average  annual  consumption  per  person,  we  find  that  own- 
ers use  145  pounds  of  pork,  12  pounds  of  beef,  216  pounds 
of  flour,  a  little  over  6  chickens,  about  10  dozen  eggs,  4.3 
bushels  of  potatoes,  about  2  bushels  of  meal,  36  quarts  of 
fruit,  and  10  quarts  of  vegetables.  Tenants  use  annually 
per  person,  129  pounds  of  pork,  5  pounds  of  beef,  194 
pounds  of  flour,  about  5  chickens,  a  little  over  7  dozen  eggs, 
less  than  4  bushels  of  potatoes,  about  2  bushels  of  meal,  32 
quarts  of  fruit,  and  n  quarts  of  vegetables.  Laborers  use 
on  an  average  per  person  112  pounds  of  pork,  9  pounds  of 
beef,  201  pounds  of  flour,  4  chickens,  a  little  over  6  dozen 
eggs,  3.6  bushels  of  potatoes,  less  than  one  bushel  of  meal, 
23  quarts  of  fruit,  and  about  9  quarts  of  vegetables. 

From  these  figures  it  is  clear  that  the  farm  does  not  con- 
tribute as  much  to  the  laborer's  table  as  it  does  to  either  the 
owner's  or  the  tenant's  table.  On  the  whole  country  people 
probably  have  as  much  to  eat  as  city  people  but  the  diet  is 
not  so  well  balanced,  simply  because  farm  women  do  not 
know  the  dietetic  value  of  foods.  Much  of  the  farmer's 
work  is  hard  and  a  correspondingly  heavy  diet  is  needed  but 
their  food  is  usually  as  heavy  on  days  they  do  not  work  as 
it  is  when  working  hard.  Furthermore,  there  is  practically 
no  difference  in  the  food  served  to  children  and  to  adults. 
Children  are  fed  anything  and  as  much  as  they  want. 

The  cooking  is  another  factor  that  tends  to  make  the 
rural  diet  unhealthful.  Most  of  the  food  is  fried  in  large 
quantities  of  grease.  Many  farm  women  do  not  know  how 
to  vaiy  the  method  of  cooking  or  prepare  inviting  dishes. 


38  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Farm  people  hurry  through  their  meals  and  do  not  get  any 
real  enjoyment  out  of  eating.  The  etiquette  of  the  farm  is 
to  eat  as  quickly  as  possible  and  leave  the  table. 


RECREATION 

What  do  these  657  families  do  in  their  leisure  time  ?  An 
attempt  was  made  to  learn  whether  parents  and  children 
attend  at  least  once  during  the  year  certain  activities  such 
as  club  meetings,  picnics,  parties,  dances,  athletic  meets,  pub- 
lic meetings ;  belong  to  fraternal  orders ;  take  trips  away  on 
the  train ;  whether  they  have  pianos  or  organs,  other  musical 
instruments,  telephones,  or  automobiles;  and  the  extent  of 
their  reading.  In  the  following  discussion  attendance  of 
parents  means  that  of  one  or  both  parents,  and  of  children, 
that  of  one  or  more  of  the  children  in  the  family.  The 
inquiry  is  on  a  family  rather  than  on  an  individual  basis. 

Clubs.  One  hundred  and  thirty-six  owner  parents  belong 
to  or  attend  agricultural  clubs,  farm  bureaus,  or  similar  or- 
ganizations, while  the  children  in  58  such  families  belong  to 
the  boys'  and  girls'  agricultural  clubs.  Among  tenants  there 
are  only  nine  parents  and  three  children  attending  or  belong- 
ing to  such  clubs  and  among  laborers  the  corresponding 
figures  are  four  and  five. 

Picnics.  A  picnic  is  considered  to  mean  any  sociable, 
supper  or  other  gathering  of  this  kind  in  public  places. 
Among  owners  the  attendance  of  parents  is  159  and  of 
children  155;  among  tenants,  parents  26  and  children  29; 
among  laborers,  parents  34  and  children  31. 

Parties.  This  is  construed  to  mean  any  social  gathering 
or  entertainment  in  the  home.  Following  is  the  attendance : 
among  owners,  parents  80  and  children  123 ;  among  tenants, 
parents  6  and  children  17;  among  laborers,  parents  14  and 
children  13. 

Dances.  The  extent  of  dancing  is  limited.  It  occurs  for 
the  most  part  in  the  home.  For  owners  the  report  of  attend- 
ance at  dances  is,  parents  18  and  children  26;  for  tenants, 


THE  RURAL  HOME  39 

parents  I  and  children  2;  for  laborers,  parents  8  and  chil- 
dren 6. 

Athletics.  These  consist  largely  of  local  baseball  games. 
The  attendance  is :  among  owners,  parents  47  and  children 
60 ;  among  tenants,  parents  7  and  children  9 ;  among  laborers, 
parents  2  and  children  7. 

Public  Meetings.  These  are  considered  recreation  only 
in  so  far  as  they  provide  some  place  to  go.  They  are  usually 
for  a  political  speech,  a  lecture  or  an  agricultural  discussion. 
Attendance  among  owners  is,  parents  194  and  children  133; 
among  tenants,  parents  20  and  children  13 ;  among  laborers, 
parents  38  and  children  20. 

Fraternal  Orders.  Practically  all  of  the  more  important 
and  nationally  known  fraternal  orders  are  found  in  the  coun- 
try. A  few  orders  are  local.  One  hundred  and  nine  owner, 
19  tenant,  and  20  laborer  parents  belong  to  lodges. 

Church  and  Sunday  School  Attendance.  Following  is  the 
record  of  attendance  among  owners  at  church,  parents  324 
and  children  310;  and  at  Sunday  School,  parents  269  and 
children  287 ;  among  tenants  at  church,  parents  35  and  chil- 
dren 43,  and  at  Sunday  School,  parents  29  and  children  40 ; 
among  laborers  at  church,  parents  55  and  children  53,  and 
at  Sunday  School,  parents  44  and  children  49. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  attendance  of  parents  at 
public  meetings  and  at  picnics  is  greater  than  at  all  the  other 
forms  combined  and  that  the  percentages  of  owners,  tenants, 
and  laborers  attending  these  two  forms  together  are  about 
equal.  For  owners  and  tenants,  attendance  at  dances  is 
least,  the  percentages  being  respectively  four  and  one,  while 
for  laborers  it  is  eight.  The  percentages  of  laborers  attend- 
ing athletic  meets  and  clubs  are  both  lower  than  the  percent- 
ages of  them  attending  dances. 

For  children,  picnics  are  of  most  importance.  One-third 
each  of  owner  and  laborer  and  two-fifths  of  tenant  families 
reported  their  children  attending  this  form  of  recreation 
from  one  to  a  dozen  times  a  year.  Public  meetings  come 
next,  the  percentage  of  owners'  children  being  28,  of  ten- 


40  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ants'  17,  and  of  laborers'  21.  Parties  are  third  in  impor- 
tance. Dances  are  attended  proportionally  more  by  labor- 
ers' children  than  by  either  of  the  other  groups. 

An  interesting  fact  is  that  the  number  of  owner  parents 
(on  the  family  basis)  attending  agricultural  clubs  is  2^ 
times  as  great  as  the  number  of  children  attending  boys' 
and  girls'  clubs.  In  the  case  of  tenant  parents  it  is  three 
times  as  great  as  that  of  the  children,  whereas  in  the  case 
.of  the  laborer  parents  it  is  slightly  less  than  that  of  the 
children. 

The  general  average  of  attendance  at  these  forms  of  recre- 
ation is  slightly  better  for  parents  than  for  children.  For 
parents  the  order  is :  owners,  laborers,  tenants ;  and  for  chil- 
dren: owners,  tenants,  laborers.  The  striking  fact  is,  how- 
ever, that  not  one  of  these  forms  mentioned  was  attended 
even  once  during  the  year  by  more  than  40  per  cent  of  either 
parents  or  children.  This,  of  course,  does  not  show  how 
many  never  attend  any  of  these  things  at  all  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  number  is  large.  One  man,  when  asked 
what  he  did  for  recreation,  said,  "Mister,  I  ain't  got  no  time 
for  such  things,  and  if  I  did  have  time  I  wouldn't  go  to  'em 
'cause  I  don't  believe  in  'em."  This  attitude  is  what  makes  so 
much  of  rural  recreation  negative  rather  than  positive.  It  is 
why  we  find  so  many  young  folks  loafing  at  the  village  cross- 
roads "all  dressed  up  and  nowhere  to  go."  These  two  ele- 
ments— lack  of  time  and  disbelief  in  amusements — are  two 
important  factors  in  making  country  life  dull  and  uninterest- 
ing. Both  are  illusions.  In  the  early  days  when  the  farmer 
was  self-sufficient,  when  he  made  his  own  shoes,  his  own 
clothing,  ground  his  own  corn  and  wheat,  and  did  all  his  own 
work  by  hand,  there  was  perhaps  some  excuse  for  saying 
he  had  no  time  for  anything  but  the  job  of  making  a  living, 
but  in  these  days  of  the  division  of  labor,  he  can  not  say 
he  does  not  have  the  time  necessary  for  the  recreation  of 
himself  and  family.  The  reason  he  clings  to  this  belief  is 
because  he  always  has  something  to  do  and  there  is  an  old 
saying  that  the  farmer's  work  is  never  done,  but  good  man- 


THE  RURAL  HOME  41 

agement  and  proper  planning  ahead  would  enable  him  to  do 
his  work  in  season.  As  to  the  second  point — disbelief — it  is 
the  result  of  the  teachings  of  ignorant  country  preachers 
who  have  constantly  fought  all  forms  of  recreation  without 
setting  up  a  substitute.  Why  the  church  has  so  persistently 
failed  to  recognize  the  advantage  to  be  gained  in  having 
people  play  and  have  a  good  time  together  except  under 
its  auspices  is  difficult  to  understand.  Certainly  the  making 
of  people  happy  here  ought  not  to  interfere  with  their  hap- 
piness hereafter. 

Trips.  A  person  is  considered  as  having  taken  a  trip  if 
he  got  on  the  train  and  went  beyond  the  local  trading  center. 
Usually  this  means  farther  away  than  the  county  seat.  Fol- 
lowing is  the  record  for  individuals:  owners,  fathers  119, 
mothers  85,  and  children  85 ;  tenants,  fathers  22,  mothers  16, 
and  children  16;  laborers,  fathers  12,  mothers  10  and  chil- 
dren 8.  Visiting  is  an  important  form  of  recreation. 
While  there  is  considerable  of  it  among  friends  and  rela- 
tives locally  and  the  usual  weekly  trip  to  the  county  seat, 
especially  by  the  men  folks,  yet  less  than  25  per  cent  get  on 
the  train  and  go  away  for  a  visit.  Country  people  travel 
but  little  and  hence  do  not  enjoy  the  advantages  that  come 
from  a  change  of  scenery,  from  seeing  new  things,  and  from 
contact  with  new  ideas. 

Musical  Instruments,  Automobiles,  and  Telephones. 
Following  is  the  record  in  percentages  of  owners,  tenants, 
and  laborers,  respectively,  having  pianos  or  organs :  48,  26, 
and  21 ;  other  musical  instruments  31,  35,  and  32;  telephones 
55,  42,  and  25 ;  automobiles  23,  16,  and  23. 

Slightly  less  than  one-half  of  the  owners,  one-fourth  of 
the  tenants,  and  one-fifth  of  the  laborers  have  pianos  or 
organs,  and  only  about  one-third  each  of  the  groups  have 
some  other  kind  of  musical  instrument.  Since  music  is 
essential  to  the  enjoyment  of  so  many  kinds  of  recreation, 
it  is  evident  that  a  great  many  families  cannot  have  them 
in  their  own  homes.  A  little  less  than  one-fourth  each  of 
owners  and  laborers  have  automobiles  while  only  one  in  six 


42  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

tenants  has  one.  The  automobile  has  come  to  be  a  leading 
factor  in  rural  recreation;  its  effect  is  both  good  and  bad — 
good  because  it  enables  people  to  go  long  distances  quickly 
and  cheaply — bad  because  it  is  causing  rural  people  to  limit 
their  recreation  to  the  commercialized  forms  found  in  towns 
and  cities.  Commercial  recreation  as  such  is  not  necessarily 
to  be  condemned,  but  when  people  become  addicted  to  it, 
especially  to  the  movies,  they  tend  to  lose  the  ability  to  pro- 
vide their  own  "good  times."  The  country  is  so  rich  in  the 
material  needed  to  make  life  pleasant  and  happy  that  there 
is  no  excuse  for  failure  to  make  use  of  it.  Rural  people 
need  stimulation  and  direction  in  this  field. 

Reading  Matter.  Following  is  the  average  number  of 
books,  newspapers,  and  magazines  per  family,  and  the  per- 
centages of  families  in  the  different  groups  having  none: 
books:  owners  46,  tenants  17,  and  laborers  21 ;  the  percent- 
ages having  none,  n,  15,  and  21  respectively;  dailies:  own- 
ers .26,  tenants  .30,  and  laborers  .27 ;  the  percentages  having 
none  are  76,  74,  and  75 ;  weekly  newspapers :  owners  1 .06, 
tenants  .58,  and  laborers  .40;  the  percentages  having  none, 
31,  61,  and  73;  farm  papers:  owners  1.24,  tenants  1.13,  and 
laborers  .65 ;  the  percentages  having  none,  36,  43,  and  60 ; 
current  magazines :  owners  1 .07,  tenants  .70,  and  laborers 
.48;  the  percentages  having  none,  52,  60,  and  73. 

The  striking  thing  in  reference  to  reading  material  is 
that  so  many  families  do  not  have  books,  papers  and  maga- 
zines. Of  owner  families  one  in  nine  has  no  books  at  all, 
of  tenants  one  in  seven,  and  of  laborers  one  in  five.  Three- 
fourths  of  all  families  have  no  daily  newspapers.  Owner 
families  average  a  little  more  than  one  weekly — usually  the 
county  paper — and  only  about  one-third  of  them  have  no 
such  paper.  Among  tenants  there  is  a  little  more  than  one 
county  paper  for  every  two  families,  and  a  little  less  than 
one  for  every  %two  laborer  families,  but  three-fifths  of  the 
former  and  about  three-fourths  of  the  latter  have  none  at 
all.  Owners  and  tenants  each  have  more  than  one  farm 
paper  per  family,  while  the  laborers  have  a  little  more  than 


THE  RURAL  HOME  43 

one  for  every  two  families.  Somewhat  over  one-third  of 
the  owners,  slightly  more  than  two-fifths  of  the  tenants, 
and  three-fifths  of  the  laborers  have  no  reading  matter  about 
farm  problems.  Owners  average  better  than  one  current 
magazine  to  the  family,  but  over  half  of  the  families  have 
none.  Among  tenants  there  are  seven  magazines  for  every 
ten  families  but  three-fifths  of  them  have  none,  and  among 
laborers  there  is  about  one  magazine  for  every  two  families, 
but  nearly  three-fourths  take  none. 

Some  country  people  read,  but  a  large  majority  do  not. 
Reading  is  both  educational  and  recreational.  To  read  for 
pleasure,  the  surroundings  must  be  comfortable,  and  poorly- 
lighted,  cold,  unventilated,  or  fly-ridden  houses  are  not  com- 
fortable. Furthermore  reading  is  a  habit  but  they  have  not 
acquired  it.  Much  time  that  could  be  spent  in  profitable  as 
well  as  pleasurable  reading  is  spent  in  sheer  idleness.  Of 
course  it  must  be  recognized  that  the  first  essential  in  read- 
ing is  the  ability  to  read  and  we  may  raise  the  question,  how 
much  educational  training  do  country  people  have? 


EDUCATION 

As  to  owners,  information  was  obtained  for  421  fathers 
and  416  mothers ;  13.7  per  cent  of  the  former  and  12.9  per 
cent  of  the  latter  can  not  read  or  write.  Of  owners  who 
can  read  and  write  54.8  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  53.0  per 
cent  of  the  mothers  did  not  complete  more  than  the  fifth 
grade  at  school  and  only  7.4  per  cent  of  such  fathers  and  5.5 
per  cent  of  such  mothers  went  beyond  the  eighth  grade.  In 
only  one  of  the  n  communities  visited  were  no  illiterate 
owners  found. 

As  to  tenants,  information  was  obtained  for  68  fathers  and 
65  mothers;  22.1  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  7.7  per  cent  of 
the  mothers  can  not  read  or  write.  Of  those  who  can  read 
and  write,  64.1  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  58.3  per  cent  of 
the  mothers  did  not  go  beyond  the  fifth  grade,  while  only 


44  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

three  fathers  and  four  mothers  out  of  the  total  number  had 
any  training  beyond  the  eighth  grade. 

As  to  laborers,  information  was  obtained  for  89  fathers  and 
89  mothers ;  20.2  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  18  per  cent  of  the 
mothers  can  not  read  or  write.  Of  those  who  can  read  and 
write,  54.9  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  54.8  per  cent  of  the 
mothers  completed  no  more  than  the  fifth  grade,  while  only 
four  fathers  and  four  mothers  have  had  any  training  beyond 
the  eighth  grade. 

These  figures  speak  for  themselves.  No  wonder  the  habit 
of  reading  has  not  been  formed  when  nearly  16  per  cent  of 
all  the  fathers  and  over  13  per  cent  of  all  the  mothers  can 
not  read  nor  write.  Furthermore,  of  all  parents  visited, 
nearly  63  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  60  per  cent  of  the 
mothers  have  not  had  any  educational  training  beyond  the 
fifth  grade ;  and  less  than  six  per  cent  of  all  the  fathers  and 
only  about  five  per  cent  of  all  the  mothers  completed  more 
than  the  eighth  grade. 

Our  educational  leaders  are  wont  to  point  with  pride  to 
the  schoolhouses  every  two  or  three  miles  apart,  and  boast 
of  an  educational  opportunity  for  every  child ;  but  educa- 
tional training,  and  schoolhouses  with  a  six  or  seven  month 
term  are  not  synonymous.  While  rural  people  generally 
have  a  feeling  of  complacency — at  times  and  places  even  of 
indifference — yet  they  are  not  to  be  censured  so  severely 
for  this  attitude.  Since  education  is  a  matter  of  stimulation, 
the  responsibility  must  rest  squarely  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
educational  leaders.  No  doubt  they  too  have  too  much  of  the 
feeling  that  anything  will  do  for  country  people. 

In  rural  education,  to  apply  Cleveland's  words,  we  are 
faced  by  a  condition,  not  a  theory.  One  of  the  first  con- 
ditions that  must  be  removed  is  the  unfavorable  attitude  of 
country  people  towards  school  attendance.  Of  the  274 
owner  families  with  children  of  compulsory  school  age,  93, 
or  a  little  over  one-third,  said  they  did  not  send  their  children 
to  school  regularly.  Irregular  attendance  is  here  construed 
to  mean  continuous  absence  from  school  for  a  period  of  two 


THE  RURAL  HOME  45 

weeks  or  more  during  the  school  term.  Among  the  53 
tenant  families  with  children  of  compulsory  school  age,  25  or 
nearly  one-half  said  they  did  not  send  their  children  to 
school  regularly;  and  among  the  59  laborer  families,  28  or 
nearly  one-half.  This  is  a  severe  indictment  of  compulsory 
attendance  law  enforcement  in  the  open  country. 

Why  do  these  parents  keep  their  children  home  from 
school?  Forty-one  per  cent  of  the  owners,  72  per  cent  of 
the  tenants,  and  53  per  cent  of  the  laborers  give  work  as  an 
excuse.  Possibly  some  of  this  may  be  necessary.  It  seems 
reasonable  to  say  that  country  children  of  compulsory  school 
age  should  never  be  kept  home  to  work,  except  in  an  emer- 
gency to  save  a  crop,  and  then  only  when  there  is  no  adult 
hired  labor  available.  The  net  incomes  found  in  this  study 
— $i}ooo  for  owners,  $736  for  tenants,  and  $756  for  labor- 
ers— are  sufficiently  large  to  hire  adult  labor  if  it  is  avail- 
able. Even  if  it  is  not  available,  there  would  hardly  be  any 
emergency  period  so  long  as  to  keep  children  away  from 
school  for  two  weeks  or  more  at  a  time.  No  doubt  much 
of  the  time  children  are  kept  at  home  to  work  is  spent  in 
profitable  employment  but  the  keeping  of  them  at  home  is 
due  too  often  to  a  whim  of  their  parents  rather  than  to  any 
real  emergency.  Parents,  of  course,  think  they  need  their 
children  to  help,  but  not  knowing  the  value  of  an  education, 
they  see  no  reason  for  sending  their  children  to  school  when 
there  is  work  to  be  done. 

Sickness  is  the  second  most  important  cause  given  by 
parents  for  keeping  children  out  of  school.  Twenty-seven 
per  cent  of  owner,  20  per  cent  of  tenant,  and  25  per  cent  of 
laborer  parents  give  this  excuse.  No  doubt  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  sickness  necessitating  children  staying  home  from 
school ;  but  greater  than  sickness  itself  is  the  fear  of  sickness. 
An  epidemic  breaks  out  in  a  community  and  immediately 
parents  keep  their  children  at  home..  Whether  sickness  is  a 
real  or  imaginary  cause,  its  importance  is  none  the  less  great. 
This  too  must  be  dealt  with  as  a  condition — a  condition 
which  urban  leaders  of  education  have  met  and  are  well  on 


46  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

the  way  to  solving — but  for  country  children  the  problem  has 
scarcely  been  recognized. 

The  third  most  important  cause  is  what  may  be  called  in- 
difference. Under  this  head  were  included  all  other  excuses 
given  by  parents,  which  could  not  be  considered  valid. 
Twenty-three  per  cent  of  owners',  four  per  cent  of  tenants', 
and  21  per  cent  of  laborers'  excuses  are  classed  as  indif- 
ference. It  must  be  recognized  that  the  element  of  indiffer- 
ence enters  into  both  work  and  sickness  excuses  but  to  what 
extent  can  not  be  told  except  by  a  careful  consideration  of 
each  case  on  its  merits.  This  is  the  work  of  the  truancy 
officer.  To  the  average  rural  parent,  truancy  is  not  staying 
home  from  school  to  work,  or  from  the  fear  of  sickness,  or 
for  any  other  reason,  but  is  playing  hookey  from  school. 
The  enforcement  of  the  attendance  laws  is  left  largely  in  the 
hands  of  local  people.  Often  there  is  a  close  relationship 
by  blood  or  marriage  between  those  whose  duty  it  is  to 
enforce  the  law  and  those  against  whom  the  law  must  be 
enforced.  It  is  impossible  to  expect  officers  so  situated  rig- 
idly to  enforce  the  law.  The  ties  of  kinship  and  friendship 
and  also  unwillingness  to  stir  up  trouble  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, all  seriously  interfere  with  enforcement.  Often  the 
officer  himself  is  a  flagrant  violator  of  the  law.  The  right 
to  educational  training  has  not  yet  been  fully  secured  to 
country  children. 

We  have  discussed  the  conditions  surrounding  children  in 
657  rural  families.  To  what  extent,  if  any,  are  these  con- 
ditions responsible  for  the  movement  of  children  away  from 
the  farm  ? 

In  the  486  owner  families  there  were  844  children,  or  37.2 
per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  children  living,  who  have  left 
home.  Twenty-nine  per  cent  of  them  are  farming,  nearly 
three-fourths  being  on  farms  in  the  communities  where 
they  were  born  and  reared.  Fourteen  per  cent  are  doing 
unskilled  work,  the  majority  in  the  communities  where  they 
live.  Another  14  per  cent  are  skilled  workers  in  mines, 
quarries,  timber  and  oil  fields.  Nearly  7  per  cent  are 


THE  RURAL  HOME  47 

engaged  in  clerical  and  sales  work.  Nine  per  cent  are 
physicians,  ministers,  dentists,  druggists,  veterinarians,  sur- 
veyors, lawyers,  teachers  and  nurses,  most  of  whom  have 
had  at  least  a  high  school  education.  Eleven  per  cent  are 
engaged  in  trades,  professions  or  businesses  which  require 
a  period  of  apprenticeship,  or  actual  experience  in  carrying 
them  on.  These  are  all  skilled  workers,  some  more  so  than 
others.  They  include  such  mechanical  workers  as  black- 
smiths, locksmiths,  machinists,  auto  repairmen,  molders, 
bridge  and  steam  plant  workers ;  such  building  trades  workers 
as  carpenters,  brickmasons,  painters,  and  plasterers;  such 
transportation  workers  as  engineers,  firemen,  brakemen, 
conductors,  motormen,  and  linemen ;  and  such  others  as  coop- 
ers, jewelers,  opticians,  bankers,  merchants,  tailors,  milliners, 
millers,  barbers,  and  brokers.  Eight  per  cent  are  such  semi- 
skilled workers  as  fishermen,  telephone  operators,  domestic 
servants,  mail  service  employees,  chauffeurs,  teamsters,  hotel, 
restaurant  and  boarding  house  keepers,  janitors,  and  factory 
workers.  Four  per  cent  are  classed  as  miscellaneous,  in- 
cluding those  in  the  army  and  navy,  county  officials  and 
students  in  school  or  college;  in  this  group  also  are  a  few 
children  living  away  from  home  for  one  reason  or  another, 
who  are  too  young  to  be  classed  as  workers.  The  jobs  of 
6  per  cent  of  the  total  number  are  unknown. 

The  75  tenant  families  have  only  51  children,  or  15.5  per 
cent  of  their  total  number  of  living  children,  away  from 
home.  Using  the  same  work  classification  as  for  owners, 
we  find  that  slightly  less  than  9  per  cent  are  engaged  in 
farm  work.  About  22  per  cent  are  in  unskilled  work  and 
about  25  per  cent  in  skilled  work.  Less  than  2  per  cent 
are  engaged,  each  in  clerical  and  sales  work,  and  in  trades, 
professions  or  businesses  with  apprenticeship  or  experience 
requirements.  Less  than  4  per  cent  are  in  professions 
which  have  an  educational  requirement.  About  10  per  cent 
have  semi-skilled  positions  and  a  little  less  than  12  per  cent 
are  classed  as  miscellaneous,  and  14  per  cent  as  unknown. 

The  96  laborer  families  have  52  children,  or  16.6  per  cent 


48  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

of  their  total  number  of  living  children,  who*  are  away  from 
home.  Fifteen  per  cent  are  engaged  in  farm  work  and  19 
per  cent  each  in  unskilled  work  and  in  skilled  work.  There 
are  only  2  per  cent  in  clerical  and  sales  work,  while  none 
are  found  in  those  professions  which  have  an  educational 
requirement.  Fifteen  per  cent  are  engaged  in  trades,  pro- 
fessions or  businesses  which  have  an  apprenticeship  or  ex- 
perience requirement,  and  slightly  less  than  10  per  cent  have 
semi-skilled  positions.  About  10  per  cent  are  classed,  each, 
as  miscellaneous  and  unknown. 

While  the  number  of  tenant  and  laborer  children  is  small 
— perhaps  too  small  for  safe  deductions — yet  the  indications 
are  that  relatively  fewer  of  them  are  staying  on  the  farms 
than  are  owner  children.  Proportionally  more  of  the  ten- 
ant and  laborer  children  are  going  into  unskilled,  semi- 
skilled and  local  skilled  work  about  mines,  quarries,  timber 
and  oil  fields  than  owner  children  are,  but  practically  none  of 
the  former  are  entering  the  professions  that  have  educational 
requirements.  In  those  trades,  professions  or  businesses 
which  have  an  apprenticeship  or  experience  requirement,  the 
percentage  of  laborer  children  exceeds  that  of  owners'  but 
for  tenants'  it  is  almost  nil. 

Naturally  the  query  arises,  why  did  these  children  leave 
the  home  farm?  This  has  been  the  subject  of  a  great  deal 
of  alarming  comment,  particularly  by  urban  writers. 
Many  have  pictured  the  wholesale  desertion  of  the  farms, 
and  have  attempted  to  show  that  the  national  food  supply 
was  being  endangered,  simply  because  children  were  leaving. 
The  danger  to  the  national  food  supply  is,  however,  none 
the  less  real.  The  food  supply  depends  partly  upon  the  land, 
partly  upon  the  number  of  people  there  are  to  till  it, 
and  partly  upon  the  methods  used.  Farming,  in  order  to 
attract  and  hold  workers,  must  be  a  profitable  business  and 
experience  has  shown  that  in  order  to  make  it  profitable  the 
minimum  size  of  the  general  grain  farm  must  be  something 
like  100  acres.  This  minimum,  of  course,  is  determined  by 
the  type  of  farming.  Modern  machinery  and  better 
methods  are  tending  to  increase  rather  than  decrease  the  size 


THE  RURAL  HOME  49 

of  the  farm  in  order  to  insure  greatest  productivity  as  well 
as  greatest  profits.  In  this  study,  the  average  size  of  own- 
ers' farms  is  found  to  be  about  116  acres.  The  average 
number  of  children  at  home  in  owners'  families  is  2.87.  If 
all  these  children  remain  on  the  land,  and  then  their  chil- 
dren's children  remain,  and  so  on,  it  is  evident  that  through 
division  by  inheritance  it  would  be  only  a  few  generations 
before  each  farmer  would  have  only  a  small  parcel  of  land 
and  this  would  be  continually  decreasing  in  size  from  gen- 
eration to  generation.  Reclamation  of  cut-over  timber  and 
swamp  lands  will  provide  some  new  farms  but  this  is  of 
small  consequence.  Since  the  frontier,  which  provided  the 
outlet  for  many  farm  children  who  wanted  to  be  farmers, 
no  longer  exists,  there  is  no  alternative  but  for  many  chil- 
dren of  farm  parentage  to  go  into  other  lines  of  work. 
There  is  simply  not  room  for  all  of  them  on  the  land.  Fur- 
thermore, there  ought  always  to  be  for  those  children  who 
so  desire,  the  opportunity  to  take  other  occupations. 
Farming  is  not  a  closed  life  in  which  all  should  be  con- 
demned to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  their  parents.  Chil- 
dren should  have  the  right  to  exercise  freely  their  choice 
and  to  do  the  kinds  of  work  for  which  they  are  best  fitted. 

While  it  is  conceivable  that  the  food  supply  could  be 
endangered  by  wholesale  desertion  of  the  farms  yet  there  is 
no  evidence  of  such  danger  at  the  present  time.  It  does  not 
lie  in  mere  numbers  leaving  but  is  to  be  found  in  the  leaving 
of  the  best,  brightest,  and  most  intelligent.  These  are  going 
not  so  much  because  of  the  pull  that  other  occupations  have 
for  them  but  because  of  the  bad  conditions  on  the  farms. 
They  want  to  get  away  from  these  things  rather  than  into 
something  else.  This  movement  is  tending  to  leave  the 
weaker  and  more  indifferent  ones  on  the  farms.  It  is  the 
quality  of  those  leaving  rather  than  their  quantity  that  makes 
this  migration  serious.  Let  us  review  briefly  the  conditions 
found  among  the  657  families  visited  in  this  study. 

First.  Young  folks  realize  that  they  can  not  make  much 
more  than  a  living  on  the  farms.  Particularly  is  this  true 
of  tenants  and  laborers  whose  families  are  large  and  the 


50  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

chance  of  inheritance  correspondingly  small.  Not  only  is 
the  work  hard  and  the  hours  long  but  also,  and  of  more  im- 
portance, the  return  is  uncertain  in  amount  and  irregular  in 
coming  in.  The  income  of  the  parents — $1,000  for  owners, 
$756  for  laborers,  and  $736  for  tenants — while  probably 
large  enough  to  insure  all  the  necessaries  of  the  family,  is 
nevertheless  so  low  there  is  practically  no  margin  left  for 
anything  else.  Since  the  majority  of  farm  children  have  no 
direct  interest,  either  in  the  form  of  wages  or  of  some  share 
in  the  crops  or  live  stock,  they  have  the  feeling  that  all  they 
are  getting  out  of  life  is  simply  their  board  and  keep.  They 
see  how  hard  is  the  struggle  of  their  parents,  and  as  they 
picture  themselves  going  through  this  same  process,  they 
begin  to  want  to  get  away  from  it. 

Second.  The  ugly  and  unattractive  surroundings  of  so 
many  country  homes  cause  children  to  become  dissatisfied 
with  farm  life.  If  country  boys  and  girls  go  to  towns  and 
cities  and  see  beautiful,  well  kept  lawns,  neatly  painted 
houses,  and  attractive  surroundings,  and  then  return  to  un- 
painted,  unattractive  houses,  surrounded  by  yards  grown  up 
in  weeds,  it  is  not  surprising  that  their  pride  is  not  stimu- 
lated. The  mere  fact  that  children  live  in  the  country  does 
not  give  them  the  ability  to  appreciate  the  beauties  of  nature. 
City  children  long  for  the  camp,  the  swimming  hole,  the 
long  hike,  and  the  opportunity  to  study  birds,  trees,  and  flow- 
ers, more  than  country  children  do.  The  indifference  of 
many  rural  children  to  these  things  is  hard  to  understand. 

Third.  The  unsanitary  conditions  surrounding  life  on  the 
farm  are  also  of  great  importance.  This  is  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  leading  causes  of  so  much  ill  health  in  the  country. 
Where  so  many  homes  have  no  protection  of  the  water  sup- 
ply, where  more  than  20  per  cent  have  no  toilet  facilities 
whatever  and  where  more  than  half  have  no  screen  protec- 
tion against  flies,  no  other  result  can  be  expected  but  ill 
health.  If  there  is  added  to  this  the  unwholesomeness,  poor 
quality,  and  lack  of  variety  of  the  food  supply,  the  charge 
of  unhealth fulness  in  the  country  becomes  a  challenge. 


THE  RURAL  HOME  51 

Fourth.  Children  leave  the  farm  because  of  poor  educa- 
tional opportunities.  Not  only  is  the  quality  of  instruction 
poor,  the  teachers  poorly  trained  and  paid,  and  the  build- 
ings poorly  equipped,  but  the  attitude  of  parents  towards  the 
school  and  their  children's  attendance  is  such  as  to  deny 
many  of  the  children  even  the  meager  advantages  provided. 
It  matters  not  whether  the  poor  schools  have  brought  about 
an  unfavorable  attitude  on  the  part  of  parents  or  vice  versa, 
the  result  is  the  same — country  children  are  not  getting  the 
educational  training  to  which  they  are  entitled. 

Fifth.  Children  leave  the  farm  because  they  long  for  a 
good  time.  To  them  so  much  of  country  activity  is  dull  and 
unattractive.  They  want  to  be  happy  and  to  enjoy  them- 
selves. They  want  somewhere  to  go,  something  to  do. 
Since  they  have  not  been  trained  to  take  the  facilities  and 
equipment  at  hand  and  make  a  good  time  for  themselves, 
they  spend  a  great  deal  of  their  leisure  in  idleness.  Their 
recreation  is  negative  rather  than  positive.  What  they  want 
is  action  rather  than  inaction. 

There  is  not  one  of  these  conditions  that  can  not  be 
made  right.  They  should  not  be  made  right  for  country 
people  but  should  be  made  right  by  them  under  the  leadership 
of  those  who  know  the  rural  problem  from  the  rural  point 
of  view.  The  rank  and  file  of  country  people  are  not 
conscious  of  the  unwholesome  condition  surrounding  their 
lives  on  the  farm.  It  is  only  the  more  intelligent,  the  more 
aggressive  who  see  and  know,  and  they  are  the  ones  who 
leave  for  the  cities.  In  their  leaving  is  the  most  serious  loss. 
Agriculture  must  be  put  on  such  a  business  basis  and  on  such 
a  living  basis  as  to  attract  and  hold  a  reasonable  number  of 
the  brightest  and  best  minds.  Until  farming  is  made  more 
profitable  and  unwholesome  living  conditions  corrected,  rural 
sections  will  continue  to  send  their  strongest  and  best  youths 
into  other  walks  of  life.  Not  only  the  great  industry  of 
agriculture  but  also  the  national  food  supply  will  not  be  safe 
until  country  people  are  prosperous,  healthy,  intelligently 
educated,  happy  and  contented. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS 
Walter  W.  Armentrout 

AGRICULTURAL  child  labor  is  the  commonest  and  yet  the 
least  known  form  of  child  employment.  Industrial  child 
labor  has  absorbed  the  thought  and  attention  of  reformers  in 
this  field,  probably  because  we  live  in  an  era  predominantly 
industrial.  The  nation,  the  several  spates,  and  even  many  of 
our  cities  have  consequently  passed  laws  regulating  indus- 
trial child  labor  but  have  left  untouched  the  vaster  field  of 
farm  work.  The  industrial  laborers  have  been  more 
obvious,  because  found  in  groups  in  establishments  where 
they  could  be  easily  observed,  and  this  grouping  has  also 
made  easier  the  regulation  of  their  work  and  the  study  of 
their  conditions.  Now  that  we  have  the  industrial  laborers 
fairly  well  protected  by  law  at  least,  although  the  law  may 
be  but  indifferently  enforced,  it  is  time  for  us  to  direct  atten- 
tion also  to  a  larger  group  of  working  children,  a  group 
about  which  there  are  reports  of  serious  exploitation.  Ru- 
mors come  from  all  sections  of  the  country  concerning  the 
overwork  of  farm  children,  but  careful  study  of  the  facts 
has  so  far  not  been  made.  Some  say  this  problem  is  more 
serious  than  that  of  the  industrial  child  laborer,  while 
others  see  in  it  no  cause  for  uneasiness ;  still  others  say  that 
rural  people  are  so  individualistic  that  nothing  could  be  done 
in  the  matter  anyway.  This  study  is  an  attempt  to  ascertain 
in  part  what  the  actual  conditions  are. 

For  several  decades  the  number  of  children  engaged  in 
agricultural  pursuits  has  been  on  the  increase.  Between 
the  years  1880  and  1900  the  number  very  nearly  doubled, 

52 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  53 

and  between  1900  and  1910  increased  by  approximately  one- 
half.  Unfortunately  the  occupational  data  of  the  United 
States  census  for  1920  are  not  yet  available.  In  all  proba- 
bility they  will  show  a  decrease  in  the  number  of  agricul- 
tural child  workers,  since  this  census  was  taken  in  January, 
when  comparatively  little  work  was  being  done  on  the  farms, 
whereas  that  of  1910  was  taken  in  April  when  farm  work 
was  generally  under  way.  A  census  taken  in  January  can 
not  possibly  show  conditions  as  to  agricultural  labor.  Of 
the  total  number  of  children  10  to  15  years  of  age  reported 
by  the  1910  United  States  census  as  bread  winners,  1,431,254 
or  71.9  per  cent  were  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  Of 
this  number  260,195  were  reported  as  "farm  laborers  work- 
ing out" — that  is,  on  farms  away  from  home.  The  number 
of  children  of  these  ages  reported  as  engaged  in  work  other 
than  agriculture  was  558,971.  From  these  figures  it  is  seen 
that  in  1910  there  were  almost  three  times  as  many  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  and  half  as  many  "working  out,"  as  there 
were  in  all  other  occupations.  In  so  far  then  as  numbers 
are  an  indication  of  the  existence  of  a  problem,  here  is  a! 
field  worthy  of  study. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  this  number  is  decreas- 
ing, except  as  families  in  the  country  become  fewer,  for  there 
has  been  no  general  effort  toward  preventing  or  even  dis- 
couraging child  labor  on  farms.  In  fact  in  blanket  laws 
dealing  with  child  employment,  children  engaged  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits  are  specifically  exempted.  It  has  been 
assumed  that  a  child  with  a  home  in  the  country,  where  he 
lives  under  the  care  of  his  parents,  is  ideally  situated.  Con- 
ditions, now  beginning  to  be  recognized  as  harmful  to  chil- 
dren and  even  to  adults,  have  been  pictured  as  most  attrac- 
tive in  song,  story,  verse,  and  from  the  platform,  so  that 
those  away  from  this  field  have  not  suspected  the  truth,  and 
those  living  in  it  are  so  close  to  the  problem  that  they  have 
not  seen  it.  But  students  of  rural  life  to-day  are  convinced 
that  a  rural  home  alone  is  not  sufficient  to  assure  the  child 
a  proper  opportunity  for  development  and  education. 


54  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

A  business  which  cannot  give  a  living  wage  to  its  work- 
ers, or  one  which  depends  on  the  cheap  labor  of  children  for 
its  success,  has  no  right  to  exist.  If  our  present  system  of 
agriculture  depends  on  the  labor  of  our  children  for  its 
success,  then  this  system  has  no  right  to  exist.  The  person 
who  exploits  a  child  in  agriculture  is  no  better,  and  has  no 
more  valid  excuse  for  so  doing,  than  one  who  exploits  a 
child  in  industry.  We  will  not  stand  for  child  exploitation 
in  industry,  nor  will  we  stand  for  it  in  agriculture  if  we 
find  it  there.  Is  it  there?  This  study  tries  to  answer  the 
question. 

Before  any  relief  could  be  brought  to  the  industrial  child 
it  was  necessary  to  study  the  kind  of  work  he  did,  the  condi- 
tions under  which  he  worked,  and  how  this  work  and  these 
conditions  were  affecting  his  physical,  mental,  moral,  and 
social  development.  It  is  necessary,  also,  to  know  these 
things  about  the  rural  child  in  order  to  decide  whether 
or  not  the  work  he  does  is  suited  to  his  strength  and  needs. 
If  not  suitable,  it  is  not  safe  to  assume  that  the  problem  can 
be  solved  by  the  same  methods  as  have  been  applied  in  cities. 
Careful  investigations  must  be  made  and,  above  all,  they 
must  be  free  from  the  bias  of  the  urban  state  of  mind. 

The  opportunity  came  to  make  a  study  of  child  labor  on 
farms  in  West  Virginia,  which  has  a  great  variety  of  soils, 
land  conformation,  and  agricultural  and  horticultural  inter- 
ests and  conditions.  We  wish  to  acknowledge  the  valuable 
assistance  of  the  Division  of  Extension  in  selecting  such 
communities  as  would  give  a  fair  picture  of  general  con- 
ditions and  in  furnishing  valuable  data  on  enrolment,  etc.,  in 
club  work.  We  are  grateful  also  to  the  county  agricultural, 
home  demonstration,  and  club  agents,  stationed  in  some  of 
the  counties  visited,  for  locating  the  communities  and  for 
the  contacts  with  farmers  which  our  acquaintance  with  them 
afforded.  This  study  was  made  in  the  late  winter  and  spring 
months  of  1921.  Five  communities  in  which  boys'  and  girls' 
club  work  has  been  organized  for  from  two  to  five  years,  and 
five  other  communities  representing  different  kinds  of  farm- 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  55 

ing,  were  visited.  Some  time  was  spent  in  as  many  homes 
as  possible  in  each  community.  The  homes  were  not  se- 
lected in  advance,  but  visited  as  encountered  in  going  about 
the  communities.  A  schedule  of  questions  relating  to  the 
life  and  work  of  each  child  in  a  family  was  used  and 
answers  noted  as  given  both  by  the  parent  and  the  child. 
Exact  records  were  obtained  for  259  children,  8  to  16  years 
of  age  inclusive,  in  142  homes.  In  addition,  while  assisting 
in  the  studies  which  form  the  basis  of  the  chapters  on 
"The  Rural  Home"  and  "Rural  School  Attendance,"  chil- 
dren in  300  other  homes  and  in  26  rural  schools  in  other  com- 
munities were  observed.  Altogether  children  in  26  counties 
were  visited.  The  figures  which  will  be  quoted,  however, 
are  only  for  those  children  visited  in  the  10  communities 
mentioned  first. 


KINDS  OF  WORK  AT  WHICH  CHILDREN  CAN  BE  EMPLOYED  ON 
VARIOUS  TYPES   OF  FARMS 

Speak  of  a  child  working  in  industry  and  no  definite  idea 
of  the  work  he  is  doing  is  conveyed.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  child  in  agriculture.  The  type  of  farming  determines 
the  work  he  may  do  in  agriculture  to  somewhat  the  same 
extent  as  the  type  of  industry  determines  the  work  he  may 
do  in  industry.  For  this  reason  it  is  important  to  consider 
the  types  of  farming  and  the  opportunity  each  one  offers 
for  the  employment  of  children. 

In  the  most  widespread  type,  called  general  farming,  the 
crops  are  corn,  small  grain,  hay,  and  truck  for  home  con- 
sumption. It  is  divided  into  two  sub-types,  according  to  the 
method  of  disposing  of  the  crops ;  if  the  grain  and  hay  are 
marketed  as  such,  the  sub-type  is  called  general  grain  farm- 
ing, but  if  sufficient  live  stock  is  kept  so  that  the  major 
portion  of  the  crops  is  consumed,  it  is  called  general  live 
stock  farming.  Both  these  sub-types  vary  somewhat;  for 
example,  grain  farming  may  become  so  specialized  that  only 
two  or  three  kinds  of  grain  are  grown,  and  the  general  live 


56  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

stock  farm  may  become  a  highly  specialized  one  in  which 
the  feed  grown  on  the  place  is  supplemented  by  purchased 
feed.  This  latter  sub-type  may  vary  again  so  that  the  live 
stock  are  grazed  only,  and  are  marketed  before  feeding 
time. 

Dairy  farming,  while  similar  in  many  respects  to  live- 
stock farming,  has  some  distinct  features.  A  dairy  herd 
must  receive  better  care  than  butcher  animals,  the  milking 
must  be  done,  and  the  marketing  of  dairy  products  requires 
work  of  a  kind  quite  different  from  that  required  for  the 
disposal  of  other  farm  products. 

In  the  one-crop  type  of  farming  the  major  operations  cen- 
ter around  one  cultivatable  crop.  The  kind  of  crop  depends 
on  the  section  of  the  country,  the  soil,  and  the  climate. 
Chief  among  such  crops  are  cotton,  tobacco,  potatoes,  sugar 
beets,  and  onions. 

The  truck-  and  market-garden  type  of  farming,  found 
especially  near  centers  of  population,  is  the  intensive  culture 
of  vegetables  for  immediate  consumption.  The  acreage  of 
individual  farms  devoted  to  this  type  is  comparatively  small, 
and  a  great  amount  of  hand  work  is  required. 

Horticultural  farming  may  be  divided  into  four  main 
types:  Orcharding,  berry  growing,  grape  growing,  and 
citrus-fruit  growing. 

These  types  in  a  very  general  way  cover  the  field  of  agri- 
culture. Each  offers  a  distinct  kind  of  work  at  which  chil- 
dren may  be  employed,  in  addition  to  the  tasks  common  to 
all.  We  shall  now  mention  briefly  the  kinds  of  work 
peculiar  to  each  type,  and  the  ages  at  which  children  can  be 
employed  at  this  work  to  the  farmer's  profit,  leaving  for  a 
later  discussion  the  actual  conditions  found. 

On  the  general  grain  farm  only  the  larger  children,  usually 
those  from  14  years  upwards,  can  be  used  to  any  advantage 
in  preparing  the  soil  for  spring  planting.  This  first  main 
crop  in  the  spring  is  corn,  and  when  this  is  planted  with  a 
drill  or  check  planter  only  those  children  who  are  large 
enough  to  operate  such  an  implement  can  be  used,  but  where 
the  grain  is  dropped  by  hand  and  covered  with  a  hoe,  as 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  57 

it  is  in  many  of  the  rougher  sections  of  the  country,  very 
small  children  can  be  used.  Young  children  can  be  used 
everywhere  for  thinning  (pulling  out  the  corn)  and  hoeing. 
Hoeing  is  the  most  common  work  for  the  small  child  and 
the  hoeing  season  may  extend  over  a  period  of  three  months. 
A  child  of  from  10  years  upwards  can  cultivate  corn  with  a 
single  walking  plow,  but  it  takes  an  older  and  stronger  one 
to  operate  a  two-horse,  or  single-row,  cultivator.  On  this 
type  of  farm,  harvesting  of  small  grain  is  the  next  major 
operation.  With  modern  harvesting  machinery  only  the 
larger  children  can  be  employed  to  advantage,  but  the  smaller 
ones  can  collect  bundles  and  help  with  the  shocking.  The 
harvest  lasts  only  a  short  season,  and  the  care  with  which 
the  grain  must  be  handled  requires  the  work  of  adults. 
When  bundles  are  hauled  to  the  barn  or  thresher  small  chil- 
dren can  pack  on  the  wagon,  or  even  pitch  bundles  onto  the 
wagon  or  into  the  thresher.  The  hay  harvest  offers  greater 
opportunity  for  the  employment  of  children.  A  small  child, 
perhaps  not  younger  than  eleven  or  twelve  years,  can  drive 
a  mowing  machine,  a  rake,  a  tedder,  a  loader,  or  a  horse  to 
the  hay  fork ;  can  fork  hay  into  a  cock,  can  pitch  it  onto  the 
wagon;  can  mow  with  a  scythe  in  the  fence  corners  and 
around  stumps ;  can  rake  the  windrows  with  a  hand  rake ; 
can  pack  it  on  the  wagon  or  in  the  hay  mow  or  stack.  This 
harvest  lasts  for  a  longer  season  and  requires  less  careful 
handling  than  does  the  small  grain.  Where  corn  is  cut  and 
shocked  in  the  field  small  children  can  be  employed  also. 
The  husking  of  standing  corn  and  of  corn  in  the  shock,  and 
shredding  afford  employment  for  the  larger  ones  only.  In 
the  preparation  of  land  for  the  sowing  of  small  grain  there 
is  not  much  work  for  a  child  unless  he  is  large  enough  to 
handle  a  team  with  a  disc  harrow,  or  to  drive  a  tractor.  At 
seeding  time  he  can  carry  seed  or  fertilizer  from  the  wagon 
to  the  drill.  Seeding  should  be  completed  and  corn  stored 
by  the  last  of  December  and  on  this  type  of  farm  the  child 
should  find  no  further  employment  with  the  crops  until  the 
spring  planting  begins  again. 

The  general  live-stock  farm  offers  these  same  opportuni- 


58  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ties  for  employment  and,  in  addition,  feeding,  watering,  and 
bedding  the  stock,  and  handling  the  manure. 

The  dairy  farm  offers  all  the  work  found  on  a  live-stock 
farm  and,  in  addition,  milking,  churning,  cleaning  utensils, 
caring  for  and  marketing  the  dairy  products. 

The  work  on  a  one-crop  farm  depends  somewhat  on  the 
kind  of  crop  grown.  In  cotton  farming  any  child  large 
enough  to  handle  a  mule  and  single  plow  can  be  used  for 
the  preparation  of  land  for  planting.  The  same  child  can 
run  a  cotton  planter,  and  a  still  smaller  one  can  drop  and 
cover  the  seeds  with  a  hoe.  Following  the  planting  come 
the  thinning  and  the  long  hoeing  season.  A  very  small  child 
can  use  a  hoe,  pull  a  cotton  plant,  or  pull  the  fiber  from  the 
cotton  boll,  hence  he  can  find  employment  from  planting 
time  through  the  picking  season  which  may  not  be  over 
till  the  late  winter. 

The  acreage  of  tobacco  on  a  farm  is  comparatively  small. 
The  adult  usually  finds  time  for  preparing  the  soil,  but  chil- 
dren can  be  used  in  making  the  hills,  in  dropping  the  ferti- 
lizer and  the  plants,  and  in  setting  the  plants.  Then  comes 
the  hoeing,  the  worming,  and  suckering,  at  which  children 
from  seven  years  old  upwards  can  be  used.  In  harvesting 
tobacco  small  children  can  carry  and  hold  sticks,  but  only 
the  larger  ones  can  cut  the  tobacco,  hang  it  on  the  scaffold, 
hand  it  off,  and  tie  it.  This  may  not  be  finished  till  late 
winter. 

The  method  of  raising  potatoes  depends  to  a  great  extent 
on  the  acreage  devoted  to  the  crop.  Where  there  is  a  large 
acreage  the  potatoes  are  planted,  cultivated  and  harvested 
with  machinery,  but  where  the  acreage  is  small,  most  of  the 
work  is  done  by  hand  and  with  simple  tools.  In  the  former 
case  a  child  would  not  ordinarily  find  employment,  but  in  the 
latter  a  child  from  ten  or  twelve  years  old  upwards  can  be 
used  at  dropping  seed,  covering  with  a  hoe,  cutting  weeds 
and  hoeing  the  crop,  and  when  they  are  plowed  out  with 
a  single  plow,  children  who  are  very  young  can  pick  up  the 
potatoes,  placing  them  in  baskets.  This  is  a  crop  in  the 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  59 

raising  of  which  machinery  can  be  used  to  good  advantage, 
and  where  it  is  the  main  crop  such  machinery  is  ordinarily 
provided  and  much  work  that  children  can  do  is  eliminated. 

Sugar-beet  growing  carries  with  it  many  operations  at 
which  children  can  be  used,  each  extending  over  a  consider- 
able period  of  time.  A  great  deal  of  the  thinning  is  done  by 
hand  and  small  children  can  do  this,  as  well  as  the  hoeing  and 
pulling  of  the  beets.  It  takes  a  great  deal  of  hand  work  to 
make  this  crop,  each  individual  operation  is  easy,  and  chil- 
dren can  be  used  throughout  the  season. 

Onion  farming  requires  work  of  a  similar  nature  to  sugar- 
beet  farming,  and  in  these  same  operations  of  thinning, 
hoeing,  and  pulling  children  can  be  used. 

In  market  gardening  most  of  the  work  must  also  be  done 
by  hand.  The  plants  must  be  set,  weeds  pulled  and  cut  with 
a  hoe,  and  vegetables  and  truck  harvested  and  prepared  for 
market.  The  work  continues  throughout  the  season  and 
children  can  be  used  for  all  the  hand  operations.  Their  use- 
fulness depends  on  the  care  they  exercise  in  their  work,  but 
in  most  of  it  they  can  be  used  to  as  much  advantage  as  an 
adult. 

Aside  from  piling  brush  after  pruning,  a  child  cannot  be 
used  much  in  orcharding  before  picking  time.  The  picking 
must  be  done  by  hand  and  a  child  under  10  years  cannot 
do  much  of  this.  The  pickers  can  also  pack  the  fruit.  The 
season  for  this  work  depends  on  the  kind  of  orchard — that 
is,  on  the  kinds  of  fruit  grown — but  in  most  cases  it  is  short. 

While  citrus-fruit  growing  is  different  in  many  respects, 
the  work  at  which  a  child  can  be  used  is  similar,  in  the 
main,  to  that  in  orcharding. 

The  work  for  which  children  are  in  demand  in  berry 
growing  is  the  picking  of  the  berries.  This  requires  no 
special  skill  or  care  and  very  small  chilldren  can  "make  good 
hands."  Besides  this  the  plants  must  be  weeded  and  culti- 
vated as  are  many  other  farm  crops. 

Aside  from  the  cutting  of  weeds  and  the  cultivation  of 
the  vines,  vineyarding  offers  two  distinct  types  of  work  for 


60  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

children.  In  the  spring  they  can  tie  the  vines  to  the  wires 
and  in  the  late  summer  they  can  pick  the  grapes.  The 
bunches  are  cut  off  by  means  of  a  sharp  knife,  placed  in  a 
large  basket,  and  carried  to  barrels.  This  method  of  har- 
vesting may  vary  in  different  sections  but  it  is  essentially  the 
same  everywhere.  A  very  small  child  cannot  do  this  work 
satisfactorily,  for  grapes  require  careful  handling  if  they  are 
to  reach  market  in  salable  condition.  The  tying  season  lasts 
only  two  or  three  weeks  but  the  picking  season  may  be  con- 
tinuous over  two  months. 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  PARENTS  AND  OF  THE  STATE  TOWARD  THE 
WORK    CHILDREN   DO 

In  the  beginning  of  our  agricultural  development  it  was 
necessary  that  every  member  of  the  family  be  a  producer 
to  his  greatest  capacity.  Families  lived  far  apart,  seasonal 
help  was  scarce,  and  the  labor  of  the  whole  family  was 
necessary  to  save  the  crop.  The  family  that  did  not  pro- 
duce to  its  utmost  was  looked  upon  as  a  drag  on  the  com- 
munity. A  child  who  spent  his  time  in  play  was  not  only  of 
no  benefit  but  was  thought  to  be  on  his  way  to  ruin.  Work 
kept  adults  out  of  mischief,  so  why  was  it  not  good  for  the 
child?  Rural  folk  are  slow  to  change  from  old  to  new 
ideas.  Many  children  are  still  compelled  by  their  parents 
to  work,  not  from  necessity,  but  because  they  honestly  be- 
lieve that  work  is  the  only  thing  worth  while  for  them. 
They  are  prejudiced  against  play,  recreation,  and  social  life, 
and  cannot  see  the  value  of  an  education  if  it  interferes  with 
their  immediate  needs,  so  they  often  require  children  to  work 
to  keep  them  out  of  "divilment."  On  the  other  hand,  there 
is  still  severe  economic  pressure  on  many  rural  homes 
which,  without  relief  from  other  sources,  demands  the  undi- 
vided attention  of  every  member  of  the  family. 

The  parent's  conception  of  his  relation  to  his  child  is 
another  factor  influencing  the  kind  and  amount  of  work 
the  child  does.  The  popular  conception  in  the  rural  mind 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  61 

is  that  the  child  is  indebted  to  the  parent  for  bringing  him 
into  this  world,  that  it  is  the  child's  duty  to  make  every  sac- 
rifice for  the  parent,  that  where  the  interests  of  the  child  and 
the  parent  conflict,  those  of  the  former  should  always  be 
sacrificed.  A  conversation  between  a  farmer  and  the  writer, 
while  engaged  in  this  study,  will  illustrate  this  attitude.  A 
man  and  his  14-year-old  boy  were  sawing  firewood  in  the 
woodland.  Besides  this  boy  there  were  two  smaller  children 
in  the  family.  The  man  owned  a  fair-sized,  fertile  farm 
and  operated  a  threshing  machine,  from  which  he  had  made 
a  considerable  amount  of  money  during  the  past  season. 
The  boy  had  gone  along  with  the  thresher  as  a  feeder, 
doing  a  man's  work,  for  which  he  received  no  pay  what- 
ever, the  father  saying  that  sometimes  he  gave  him  a  nickel, 
that  he  boarded  him  and  clothed  him,  and  that  that  was  as 
much  as  he  got  when  he  was  a  boy.  School  was  in  session 
but  the  boy  had  not  attended  more  than  a  third  of  the  time. 
He  was  in  the  third  grade.  When  asked  what  he  would  like 
to  do  when  he  got  older,  his  father,  before  the  boy  could 
answer,  said:  "Bill  will  do  just  what  I  tell  him  to  do  till 
he  is  twenty-one,  if  he  stays  under  my  roof.  After  that  he 
is  his  own  boss  and  can  shift  for  'hisself!' "  It  is  not  likely 
that  "twenty-one"  will  find  Bill  under  his  father's  roof. 
"Twenty-one/'  the  very  time  when  the  burden  should  defi- 
nitely shift  from  the  shoulders  of  the  parent  onto  those 
of  the  child,  is  the  time  fixed  for  just  the  opposite. 

Another  parent,  a  man  who  had  four  children  between 
10  and  15  years  of  age,  talking  about  the  kind  and  amount  of 
work  his  girls  and  boys  did,  made  this  remark:  "Our 
bunch  is  profitable  to  us  all  right."  The  majority  of  the 
rural  children  are  born  of  and  raised  by  parents  having  an 
attitude  very  similar  to  that  of  these  two.  They  are  not 
to  be  condemned  for  they  have  not  caught  the  newer  vision 
of  childhood,  in  which  the  parent  owes  all  to  the  child  till  he 
reaches  maturity. 

The  work  done  by  children  on  the  farm  presents  no  diffi- 
culties to  the  mind  of  the  rural  parent.  In  conversation  with 


62  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

a  man  who  was  a  leading  farmer  and  an  active  church  and 
Sunday  School  worker  in  his  community,  one  who  had  more 
than  an  average  education  and  appreciation  of  present  day 
problems,  in  fact  a  man  who  was  the  leader  of  his  prosperous 
community,  this  question  was  asked :  "Do  you  think  the 
children  in  this  community  are  in  any  way  injured  by  the 
work  they  do  on  the  farm?"  Answer:  "No,  indeed; 
more  work  would  be  better  for  them  and  the  community 
would  be  more  prosperous." 

The  state,  on  the  other  hand,  has  taken  a  somewhat  dif- 
ferent attitude.  It  regards  its  children  as  future  citizens, 
who  must  be  given  the  chance  of  normal  development  so  that 
they  can  take  their  proper  places  later  on.  The  state  be- 
lieves that  all  is  not  well  now  with  the  rural  child  and  is 
taking  steps  to  relieve  him  of  the  burden  it  thinks  he  is 
bearing.  Knowing  the  individualism  of  the  rural  father 
and  how  he  insists  on  being  lord  of  his  household,  it  is 
not  taking  measures  of  compulsion,  but  is  trying  to  displace 
child  labor  with  something  better — it  is  substituting  chil- 
dren's work  for  child  labor.  These  differ  radically  but  it  is 
often  hard  to  distinguish  between  them.  Child  labor  inter- 
feres with  health,  education,  and  recreation ;  children's  work 
not  only  does  not  interfere  with  these  but  aids  in  securing 
them  to  the  child.  West  Virginia,  through  its  Division  of 
Extension,  is  offering  children's  work  in  the  form  of  boys' 
and  girls'  Four-H  Clubs.  These  clubs  have  been  in  success- 
ful operation  for  about  ten  years.  Their  emblem  is  a  four- 
leaf  clover,  each  leaf  representing  one  essential  part  of  a 
child's  life.  It  means  luck,  and  luck  comes  to  the  boy  or 
girl  who  has  his  Four  H's,  namely,  "Head,"  "Hand," 
"Heart,"  and  "Health,"  all  well  developed.  Clubs  are  or- 
ganized in  counties  which  employ  agricultural,  home  demon- 
stration, or  club  agents.  They  center  around  the  local 
schools,  and  often  the  children  from  two  or  three  schools 
will  be  organized  in  one.  The  number  of  clubs  in  a  county 
depends  on  the  amount  of  time  an  agent  can  devote  to  this 
work,  for  he  has  other  duties  to  perform.  Clubs  without 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  63 

a  good  leader  are  not  successful.  Any  rural  child  between 
the  ages  of  10  and  18  years  may  become  a  member,  if  he 
will  meet  certain  requirements  (referred  to  later  in  connec- 
tion with  "projects"),  secure  the  consent  of  his  parents,  and 
sign  the  following  pledge : 

"i.  To  study  carefully  the  Four-H  Suggestions  as  they 
come  to  me  each  month,  and  to  answer  questions 
and  return  blanks  promptly. 

"2.  To  do  myself  as  many  as  possible  of  the  things  sug- 
gested for  the  development  of  my  'Head/  'Hand,' 
'Heart/  and  'Health.' 

"3.  To  carry  out  at  least  one  of  the  systematic  projects 
described  in  Four-H  Suggestions  No.  4. 

"4.  To  make  accurately  and  promptly  all  reports  (in- 
cluding properly  certified  records)  and  exhibits  that 
are  a  regular  and  necessary  part  of  the  club  work. 

"5.  To  be  charted  according  to  the  Four-H  standards 
when  requested." 

The  "Four-H  Suggestions,"  referred  to  in  the  first  item  of 
the  pledge,  are  published  in  the  form  of  pamphlets,  written 
by  the  State  Club  Agent,  and  sent  to  each  member  each 
month.  These  instructions  give  seasonable  instruction  about 
the  project  the  member  is  undertaking  together  with  a  blank 
sheet  of  questions  about  the  project  and  club  work,  which  the 
member  must  answer  in  writing  and  return  to  his  club  leader. 
There  are  also  suggestions  as  to  how  the  member  may  de- 
velop his  Four-H 's.  These  suggestions  are  written  in  a  sim- 
ple and  forceful  way,  so  that  any  child  who  reads  can  under- 
stand them.  The  titles  of  some  of  the  subjects  discussed  in 
these  pamphlets  will  show  their  nature :  "About  luck,"  "About 
equipment,"  "About  scales"  (health),  "About  a  desk" 
(hand),  "About  the  three  R's,"  "About  the  heart  H," 
"About  cold  feet,"  "About  records,"  "About  muscles," 
"About  a  picnic,"  "About  Four-H  camps,"  "About  old  reli- 
able," "About  little  things,"  "About  excuses,"  "About  keep- 
ing fit,"  "About  team  play."  These  "Suggestions"  are  full 


64  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

of  illustrations  of  what  some  other  club  members  have  done, 
and  leave  the  question  with  the  member :  "Why  can't  I  do  as 
well  as  he  did?" 

The  "Systematic  Projects,"  referred  to  in  item  three  of 
the  pledge  are  described  by  the  club  agent  as  follows : 

1.  Pig  Project  (for  boys  and  girls).    Each  member  must 
own  a  sow  (pure  bred  preferable)  ;  must  care  for  his  stock 
in  person ;  and  must  agree  to  provide  some  green  forage  for 
his  pig.    Basis  of  prize  award :  best  pig  40  points,  profit  40, 
booklet  20. 

2.  Poultry  Project  (for  boys  and  girls).    Forty-five  eggs 
must  be  set  or  incubated  to  start  the  work.    Each  club  mem- 
ber must  provide  his  or  her  own  eggs.    The  poultry  must  be 
owned  and  cared  for  by  the  club  member.    A  record  of  the 
value  of  the  eggs  and  the  amount  and  the  value  of  the  feed 
must  be  kept  by  the  member  from  the  time  of  starting  work 
till  October  of  any  given  year.     Basis  of  award:  number 
raised  30  points,  profits  30,  exhibit  20,  booklet  20. 

3.  Potato  Project  (for  boys  and  girls).     Each  member 
must  secure  the  land  and  seed  to  start  the  work.    One-eighth 
acre  must  be  measured  by  two  disinterested  parties  who  will 
also  sign  the  crop  record  attesting  to  size  of  plot.    Basis  of 
award :  yield  30  points,  profits  30,  exhibit  20,  booklet  20. 

4.  Small  Fruits  Project  (for  boys  and  girls).    All  mem- 
bers shall  secure  the  ground  (1/20  acre)  and,  except  for  the 
very  hard  work,  shall  plant  to  strawberries  or  red  rasp- 
berries, cultivate  and  harvest  the  crops.    All  members  must 
exhibit  at  the  county  fair  three  quart  glass  jars  of  berries 
grown  and  canned  by  themselves,  together  with  their  record 
books  and  illustrated  booklets.     Basis  of  award:  yield  and 
profit  30  points,  exhibit  30,  record  20,  booklet  20. 

5.  Sheep  Project   (for  boys  and  girls).     Each  member 
must  own  one  or  more  ewes  with  as  good  breeding  and  in- 
dividuality as  possible.     The  sheep  must  be  managed  and 
cared  for  by  the  club  member.    Each  member  must  keep  a 
record  on  blanks  furnished  by  the  Extension  Division.    Basis 
of  award :  exhibit  40  points,  profit  40,  booklet  20. 

6.  Corn  Project  (for  boys).     Each  member  must  raise 
at  least  one  acre  of  corn.    Two  disinterested  parties  must 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  65 

measure  the  acre  before  planting,  and  sign  the  boy's  record 
book  attesting  that  the  acre  contains  4,840  sq.  yards. 
Eighteen  inches  must  be  allowed  between  edge  of  acre  and 
first  row  of  corn.  Basis  of  award :  yield  30  points,  profit  30, 
exhibit  20,  booklet  20. 

7.  Gardening  and  Canning  Project  (for  girls).    All  new 
members    (beginners)    shall  prepare  1/20  acre  of  ground 
(except  for  the  very  hard  work),  plant,  cultivate  and  har- 
vest a  crop  of  tomatoes,  canning  at  least  part  of  them.    They 
must  exhibit  at  the  county  show  or  fair  two  No.  3  tin  cans 
and  one  quart  jar  of  tomatoes  grown  and  canned  by  them- 
selves together  with  their  record  book  and  illustrated  book- 
let.   Basis  of  award :  yield  and  profit  30  points,  exhibit  30, 
record  20,  booklet  20. 

8.  Clothing  Project  (for  girls).    Each  member  shall  se- 
cure the  materials  and  herself  do  the  cutting  and  sewing 
necessary  to  make  towel  and  holder,  cooking  apron,  and 
nightgown.     She  shall  keep  in  her  record  book  an  accurate 
statement  of  the  problems  that  arise  in  connection  with  the 
clothing  project,  how  overcome,  amount  of  time  and  of 
material  used,  and  all  information  suggested  in  the  record 
book.    She  shall  make  an  exhibit  at  a  regular  club  show  of 
all  her  work  done  under  the  clothing  project.     Basis  of 
award :  exhibit  60  points,  record  20,  booklet  20. 

These  projects  are  described  more  fully  in  circulars  sent 
out  to  members  by  the  Division  of  Extension.  An  exhibit 
of  all  projects  must  be  made  at  the  county  fair  or  club  show ; 
a  record  of  cost  of  production  must  be  kept,  including  pay 
for  the  time  of  the  boy  or  girl  while  working  at  the  project 
charged  on  the  expense  side;  they  must  write  a  booklet 
telling  of  the  problems  encountered  in  the  project  and  of 
how  they  were  met;  they  must  write  a  history  of  their 
project  and  of  the  club  activities,  illustrating  with  pictures 
and  drawings  if  possible.  A  member  may  have  more  than 
one  project.  They  are  awarded  prizes  of  varying  amounts 
on  the  basis  as  shown  above.  The  money  for  the  prizes  is 
provided  in  a  great  number  of  ways,  but  most  of  it  from 
the  community  in  which  the  club  is  situated.  There  is  suf- 


66  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ficient  variety  in  the  projects  to  allow  any  child  to  find  some- 
thing he  can  handle.  Each  one  selects  his  project  with  the 
advice  of  the  agent. 

The  agent  in  charge  of  the  club  meets  the  children  at  the 
local  schoolhouse  one  afternoon  each  month.  Here  they  are 
instructed  how  best  to  meet  their  problems,  are  helped  with 
their  records,  and  discuss  the  Four-H  Suggestions  for  the 
month;  then  they  have  some  time  left  for  play,  the  leader 
staying  and  joining  in.  This  is  really  a  half -day  school,  as 
much  more  interesting  as  it  is  different  from  the  "regular" 
school.  In  addition  to  the  monthly  meetings  the  club  agent 
visits  the  members  at  their  homes,  looks  over  their  projects, 
and  gives  advice  as  to  the  best  methods  of  handling  them. 
There  is  an  effort  made  to  secure  for  the  members  pure- 
bred animals  and  seed.  Rarely  does  a  child  have  to  drop 
out  because  he  cannot  "get  a  start."  In  some  communities 
the  Farm  Bureau  or  some  business  men's  organization  has 
bought  a  number  of  pure-bred  pigs  and  has  asked  the  agent 
to  place  them  among  the  club  members.  A  member  is  given 
a  gilt ;  he  must  care  for  her  according  to  club  instructions, 
raise  a  litter  of  pigs  and  return  two  female  pigs  at  weaning 
time  to  the  organization.  All  the  remaining  pigs  and  sow 
belong  to  him,  while  the  two  returned  are  placed  with  two 
new  members.  Sheep  are  placed  on  the  same  basis,  except 
that  the  member  returns  only  one  ewe  lamb.  In  the  poultry 
project,  a  club  member  is  given  45  pure-bred  eggs  and  in 
the  fall  she  returns  three  pullets  to  pay  for  them.  Pure- 
bred males  are  placed  in  the  communities  for  service  in  con- 
nection with  projects  and  their  use  in  breeding  is  required 
whenever  this  is  possible. 

Those  who  win  county  prizes  are  sent  to  the  state  College 
of  Agriculture  during  the  following  summer  for  a  week's 
training  and  instruction  under  the  best  instructors  that  can 
be  secured.  Four  hundred  and  twenty-six  boys  and  girls 
attended  this  course  last  year.  Those  winning  state  prizes 
are  given  $100  scholarships  at  the  College  of  Agriculture. 

In  those  communities  where  the  agent  in  charge  of  this 
club  work  is  active  and  interested,  a  wholesome  social  and 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  67 

recreational  life  for  the  children  has  grown  up,  with 
sociables  at  the  schoolhouse,  parties  at  the  homes,  picnics  in 
the  community,  and  "hikes"  over  the  country.  In  one  com- 
munity visited  the  members  came  together  at  some  home 
on  two  Sunday  afternoons  each  month  during  the  summer, 
and  under  the  chaperonage  of  the  parents  hiked  to  some 
favorite  spot  where  they  had  a  short  program,  games,  and 
picnic  supper.  In  several  communities,  plays,  entertain- 
ments, or  pageants  have  been  given. 

In  the  summer  of  1920  there  were  28  Four-H  Camps  in 
the  state,  with  1,300  children  attending.  In  1914  there  was 
only  one  such  camp,  the  first  of  its  kind.  Such  time  is 
selected  as  the  boys  and  girls  can  best  be  spared  from  their 
homes,  and  the  camp  leaders  can  attend.  A  place  in  the 
county  suitable  for  camping  is  selected,  with  drinking  water 
convenient,  and  if  possible  a  place  to  swim.  The  county 
is  the  unit  for  these  camps.  Each  member  brings  his  own 
provisions  according  to  a  list  sent  out  by  the  county  agent ; 
these  are  so  simple  that  no  child  need  stay  away  because  of 
their  requirement.  Tents  are  pitched  and  camp  opens  on 
Monday.  The  county  *agent,  assisted  by  instructors  from 
the  Division  of  Extension,  the  College  of  Agriculture,  or 
from  outside  the  state,  is  in  charge  of  the  camp.  Two  or 
three  mothers  of  club  members  volunteer  to  do  the  cooking 
and  each  child  cares  for  his  own  equipment.  The  children 
are  divided  into  groups  according  to  age  and  sex  for 
instruction ;  into  "tribes"  of  mixed  age  and  sex  for  play : 
and  the  work  and  play  begin.  The  following  is  a  typical 
day's  program : 

6.00  a.  m.     Bugle. 

6.10  a.  m.     Flag  raising. 

6.30  a.  m.     Setting  up  exercises  or  morning  dip. 

7.00  a.  m.     Breakfast. 

8.00  to  11.00  a.  m.     Periods  of  instruction  by  the 

leaders    on    topics    dealing    with    the 

Four-H's. 

Ii.oo  a.  m.     Medicine  ball. 
11.15  a-  m-     General  assembly  (lectures  and  talks) 


68  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

12.00  m.  Dinner. 

1.30  p.  m.  General  assembly. 

1.45  p.  m.  Play  and  recreation  by  "tribes." 

4.30  p.  m.  Rest. 

6.00  p.  m.  Supper. 

7.30  p.  m.  Vespers. 

8.00  p.  m.  Night's  doings  (camp  fires,  story  tell- 
ing, pageants,  etc.). 

10.00  p.  m.  Bed. 

One  day,  usually  Thursday,  is  set  aside  as  visitors'  day, 
when  a  large  number  of  club  members'  parents  come  to  join 
in  the  games  and  to  inspect  the  camp.  Many  parents  have 
said  that  this  day  was  the  best  of  the  year  for  them. 

As  many  of  the  older  members  as  request  it  and  can  be 
handled  are  "charted"  at  the  camp — that  is,  they  take  a  test 
on  the  Four  H's.  This  is  not  a  test  of  what  the  child  has 
learned  but  rather  of  what  he  is  able  to  do,  of  his  physical 
condition,  and  of  his  moral  judgment.  For  the  "Head"  test 
there  is  used  a  Standardized  Silent  Reading  Test  devised  by 
Walter  S.  Monroe,  University  of  Illinois;  Curtis  Standard 
Research  Test  in  Arithmetic;  and  The  Myers  Mental 
Measure.  For  the  "Heart"  test,  questions  in  moral  judg- 
ment are  used.  Their  skill  of  hand  is  tested  and  they  are 
weighed  and  measured.  The  following  chart  will  better 
explain : 

HEAD 

Points  Points 

possible  earned 

1.  200    Ability  to  read 

2.  200    Accuracy  and  speed  with  figures .... 

3.  loo    Proof  of  regular  home  reading 

4.  loo    Report  of  "What  This  Camp  Means 

to  Me" 

5.  100    Explanation  of  ambitions  in  life 

6.  200    Keenness  of  observation,  mental  alert- 

ness, never  getting  rattled 

7.  loo    General  information 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  69 

HAND 

Points  Points 

possible  earned 

1.  150  Quickness,  accuracy  of  movement. . . 

2.  100  Strong  grip,  well  developed  callouses 

3.  150  Skill  in  making  things  without  tools. 

4.  200  Skill  in  making  things  with  tools 

5.  100  Boiling  one  quart  of  water  in  ten  min- 

utes (one  match,  one  block  of  wood, 
one  axe,  can  with  one  quart  of 
water)  

6.  100    Drawing:  mechanical  and  freehand.. 

7.  200    Number  of  points  earned  at  camp. . . 

HEART 

Points  Points 

possible  earned 

1.  100    Good  judgment  in  distinguishing  be- 

tween right  and  wrong 

2.  200    Efforts  to  live  up  to  the  Golden  Rule. 

3.  200    Religious  training,  church  and  Sun- 

day  School  activities 

4.  100    Appreciation  of  the  beautiful 

5.  200     Loyalty  to  the  gang 

6.  loo    Good  team  work  in  this  camp 

7.  loo    Praiseworthy  ambitions   


HEALTH 

Points  Points 

possible  earned 

1.  loo     Normal  gain  in  weight 

2.  200    Physical  well  being 

Eyes  (50) Teeth  (30) 

Ears   (30) Nose   (10) 

Throat  (10) Feet  (20) 

Carriage   (30)  . .  .Complexion  (10)  . . 
Lack  of  shadows  under  eyes  ( 10)  . . . 

3.  200     Good  health  habits 

Bath  (25) Fresh  air  (25) 

Sleeping  8  hours  daily  (25) 


70  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Points  Points 

possible  earned 

Eating  habits  (  50) 

Tooth  brush  (25) 

Drinking  plenty  of  water  (25) 

Free  bowel  movement  daily  (25)  ... 

4.  100     Sanitary   environment   at   home   and 

school 

5.  100     Preventives  used :  small-pox  vaccina- 

tion,   typhoid    vaccination,    rescue 
swimming,  first  aid 

6.  200    Athletic  ability:  running  (50),  jump- 

ing   (50),    throwing    (50),    swim- 
ming (5°)  

7.  100    Well  rounded  muscular  development : 

arms,  legs,  back,  wrists 

This,  then,  is  the  attitude  the  state  assumes  toward  its 
rural  children,  and  one  plan  it  has  for  improving  their  condi- 
tion. Just  what  it  is  accomplishing  and  what  influence  it  is 
having  on  the  lives  of  boys  and  girls  will  be  discussed  later 
under  proper  headings. 

TYPES  OF  FARMING  AND   WORK  DONE  BY   CHILDREN 

Of  the  families  of  children  studied,  102  were  farm  owners 
engaged  in  general  farming ;  22  were  owners  engaged  in  live 
stock  farming ;  1 1  were  farm  laborers ;  and  7  were  tenants  on 
general  farms.  The  great  majority  of  farms  are  general 
farms,  but  some  sections  of  the  state  are  devoted  to  orchard- 
ing, and  there  are  many  potatoes,  and  tomatoes,  and  some 
tobacco  grown,  but  not  so  exclusively  as  to  class  them  as  one- 
crop  farms.  Many  of  the  general  farms  border  closely  on 
the  live  stock  type.  Under  this  general  system  of  farming 
we  would  not  expect  to  find  children  employed  to  the  same 
extent  as  under  some  of  the  other  types. 

Industrial  activities,  however,  are  placing  a  burden  on  the 
farm  child  not  commonly  found  in  rural  districts.  Of  the 
142  families  studied,  52  fathers  worked  away  from  home 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  71 

part  or  all  of  the  time  (see  chapter  on  "The  Rural  Home" 
for  kinds  of  rural  industrial  work).  This  leaves  the  chores 
and  a  great  part,  in  many  instances  all,  of  the  farm  work  for 
the  mother  and  children  to  do.  Many  cases  were  found 
where  they  were  operating  the  farm,  producing  most  of  the 
food  for  the  family,  while  the  father  was  away  doing  indus- 
trial work. 

The  work  children  do  has  been  divided  into  three  classes : 
i.  regular  chores,  2.  work  done  during  school  term,  3.  work 
done  outside  of  school  term.  Parents  and  children  were 
both  consulted  about  the  nature  of  the  work.  There  is  such 
a  great  variety  of  it  and  so  many  factors  determine  its  effect 
on  the  child,  that  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  tabulate  or 
reduce  it  to  averages.  Besides  no  record  of  the  work  chil- 
dren do  is  kept  by  the  family,  and  it  is  impossible  for  them 
to  give  even  the  number  of  days  they  were  engaged  in  a  farm 
operation.  An  attempt  will  be  made  only  to  list  the  kinds  of 
work  reported  by  children,  and  by  oarents,  and  observed  by 
the  writer  while  in  the  field. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  economic  status  of  the  parent 
has  very  little  effect  on  the  amount  of  work  done  by  the 
child  except  that,  strangely  enough,  the  chores  and  other 
light  work  he  does  increase  with  the  wealth  of  the  farmer  up 
to  a  certain  point. 

The  doing  of  chores  is  the  main  work  of  the  winter  season. 
This  consists  of  feeding,  watering,  and  caring  for  the  stock ; 
bedding  the  stables ;  milking  and  caring  for  the  milk ;  feeding 
the  chickens,  and  gathering  the  eggs;  cutting,  and  carrying 
in  wood  or  coal;  and  often  carrying  water  from  the  spring; 
sweeping  the  house,  making  beds,  and  washing  dishes.  These 
chores  must  be  done  every  day  and  many  of  them  twice  a 
day.  It  is  a  boy's  job  to  do  the  outside  work,  but  often  a  girl 
is  found  at  these  tasks.  The  amount  of  time  and  labor 
required  for  them  depends  of  course  on  the  number  of  ani- 
mals, conveniences  in  feeding  and  caring  for  them,  the 
number  of  children  to  do  them,  etc.  The  majority  of  chil- 
dren covered  by  this  study  were  employed  for  from  two  to 


72  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

four  hours  a  day  in  this  service.  Take,  for  example,  a 
schedule  of  one  14-year-old  girl's  day.  In  the  family  were 
four  children,  one  boy  16  years  old,  another  boy  10  years  old, 
a  girl  baby  6  months  old,  and  herself.  This  14-year-old  girl 
arose  at  6  o'clock,  was  busy  with  the  chores  and  cooking 
breakfast  till  8  o'clock,  walked  two  miles  to  school  which 
convened  at  9  and  closed  at  4  o'clock,  walked  home  before 
5  o'clock,  helped  with  the  evening  chores  and  had  supper  by 
6.30  or  7  o'clock,  having  about  an  hour  and  a  half  for  herself 
before  she  retired  at  9  o'clock.  This  is  not  an  extreme  case ; 
one  can  walk  no  more  than  two  miles  from  any  country 
schoolhouse  and  find  similar  instances. 

An  effort  was  made  to  learn  the  kinds  01  work  at  which 
children  were  employed  while  school  was  in  session,  and  it 
was  found  that  they  were  kept  out  for  such  work  as  har- 
vesting, husking  and  hauling  corn  and  fodder;  filling  silos; 
sowing  wheat ;  hauling  hay  from  stack  to  barn ;  going  to  mill 
or  town;  cutting  and  hauling  wood;  washing  and  ironing, 
and  caring  for  smaller  children  while  mother  was  washing  or 
working  away  from  home;  staying  home  to  work  while 
parent  was  sick ;  in  orcharding  sections,  picking,  packing,  and 
hauling  apples;  in  tobacco  sections,  cutting,  hanging,  and 
handing-off  tobacco.  In  the  main  these  are  the  kinds  of 
work  that  keep  children  from  regular  school  attendance. 

Boys  and  girls  are  employed  to  the  greatest  extent,  how- 
ever, during  the  growing  or  summer  season.  Aside  from 
the  chores,  the  chief  work,  till  they  are  12  years  old,  is 
hoeing,  thinning  corn,  picking  berries,  raking  hay,  and  work 
of  that  nature.  The  hours  of  employment  vary,  but  many 
instances  were  found  where  children  under  12  years  of  age 
spent  10  and  n  hours  in  the  field,  sometimes  for  a  week  at  a 
time.  Generally  speaking,  no  difference  is  made  between 
girls  and  boys  of  this  age,  as  the  majority  of  girls  were 
reported  as  taking  their  places  in  the  field  with  boys  until 
they  were  "too  big  for  field  work."  It  is  not  at  all  uncom- 
mon for  a  parent  to  say  that  his  12-year-old  boy  or  girl  hoes 
corn  for  12  hours  a  day.  A  large  part  of  the  farm  land  of 


County  agent  advising  14-year-old  negro  boy  who  is  raising  a  pig  as 
a  Four-H  Club  project 


Club  member  showing  wool  and  explaining  that  instead  of  selling  it 
at  2oc.  a  pound,  club  members  have  it  made  into  cloth ;  this  brings 
three  times  as  much  and  their  friends  are  enabled  to  buy  at  a 
reasonable  price  real  woolen  cloth  (see  background) 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  73 

West  Virginia  is  rough  and  hilly  and  requires  a  great  deal  of 
hoeing  "to  make  the  crop,"  and  where  there  are  enough 
children,  this  work  is  turned  over  to  them.  A  few  girls  14 
to  1 6  years  old  said  they  had  "made  a  hand"  with  a  plow 
last  summer.  One  man  and  his  1 5-year-old  daughter 
plowed  40  acres  of  corn.  Many  reported  that  their  chil- 
dren from  10  years  old  upwards  helped  to  cut  and  shock 
corn;  to  rake  windrows  with  a  hand  rake;  to  trim  around 
stumps  and  fence  corners ;  to  pitch  hay  onto  the  wagon  and 
pack  it  in  the  hay  mows ;  in  fact,  they  were  reported  as  doing 
every  kind  of  work  possible  for  them  to  do.  Practically  all 
boys  14  years  old  and  over  were  reported  by  themselves  and 
parents  as  "regular  farm  hands,"  which  means  that  they  do 
the  same  kinds  of  work  and  for  the  same  number  of  hours  as 
the  adult.  The  girls,  aside  from  assisting  in  the  fields,  help 
with  the  washing  and  ironing,  tend  the  garden,  assist  with 
the  canning,  berry  picking,  and  churning.  In  orcharding 
children  from  10  years  upwards  are  employed  at  picking  and 
packing  apples,  and  in  the  tomato  sections  at  cultivating  and 
picking  tomatoes,  many  working  also  for  part  time  in  the 
local  canning  factories.  In  the  tobacco  sections  they  set  the 
plants,  worm  and  sucker  the  tobacco  and  hand-it  off. 

James  Good,  14  years  old,  without  any  help,  prepared 
land,  cultivated,  and  harvested  10  acres  of  corn  last  summer, 
— really  a  man's  job. 

Clyde  Smith,  15  years  old,  alone  raised  6  acres  of  corn  and 
I  acre  of  tobacco. 

Ralph  Anderson,  n  years  old,  raised  l/^  acre  of  tobacco 
and  is  his  father's  only  help  on  a  95-acre  farm. 

Two  boys,  13  and  16  years  old,  do  all  the  work  on  a  125- 
acre  farm,  having  had  25  acres  in  corn  last  summer. 

William  Johnston,  13  years  old,  prepared  the  land  and 
cultivated  10  acres  of  corn. 

A  12-year-old  boy  and  his  mother  cultivated  6  acres  of 
corn  and  raised  and  marketed  800  bushels  of  tomatoes. 

Two  boys,  12  and  14  years  old,  operate  a  i4O-acre  farm 
while  the  father  works  in  a  sand  mine. 


74  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

A  boy,  15  years  old,  does  all  the  work  on  a  i5o-acre  farm, 
his  father  being  away  at  the  mines. 

A  girl,  15  years  old,  and  her  two  brothers,  13  and  14  years 
old,  hoed  15  acres  of  corn  three  times,  cut  corn  one  week, 
bound  oats  by  hand  three  days,  raked  hay  with  a  hand  rake 
eighteen  days,  picked  up  potatoes  for  three  days,  25  bushels 
each,  per  day,  last  summer. 

One  boy,  12  years  old,  was  found  operating  a  tractor, 
disking  a  2O-acre  field,  unaided. 

Every  farm  child  does  not  work  this  way,  but  such  cases 
as  these  are  not  at  all  uncommon.  It  is  unquestionable  that 
the  rural  boy  and  girl  perform  many  tasks.  Is  it  children's 
work  or  is  it  child  labor?  To  decide  this  it  is  necessary  to 
se°  how  their  rights  are  affected. 


INTERFERENCE  WITH   SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE  OF  WORK  BY 
CLUB  MEMBERS  AND  NON-CLUB  MEMBERS 

Anything  which  prevents  a  child  from  taking  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  to  attend  school  constitutes  an  injustice  to 
him.  With  regard  to  this  matter  we  shall  discuss  one  factor 
only,  namely  work,  and  see  whether  it  is  interfering  with 
school  attendance.  As  this  study  extended  only  through 
April,  it  may  not  show  even  the  minimum  of  days  missed, 
for  if  the  record  had  been  obtained  for  the  entire  school  term, 
including  the  spring  months  when  a  good  deal  of  farm  work 
is  done,  the  number  of  days  reported  missed  for  work  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  greater.  A  record  of  attendance  for 
each  child,  up  to  the  time  of  the  visit,  was  taken.  The  boys' 
and  girls'  clubs  are  exerting  a  great  influence  on  the  educa- 
tion of  their  members  and  are  improving  their  school  attend- 
ance; therefore,  in  the  following  table,  the  children  are 
divided  into  two  groups,  "club  members"  and  "non-club 
members."  Records  were  obtained  for  99  of  the  former 
and  for  160  of  the  latter. 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS 


75 


Number  of  Children  Kept  Out  of  School  for  Work  and  Average 
Number  of  Days  Missed  on  This  Account 


Club  Members 

Non-Club 
Members 

Number  of  children  7  to  14  years 
inclusive  kept  out  of  school  for 
work  

26 

48 

Average  number  days  missed  by 
each  such  child  for  work,  during 
period  studied 

\-\Vi 

\\ 

Number  of  children  15  to  16  years 
of  age  and  below  8th  grade  'kept 
out  of  school  for  work  

o 

1C 

Average  number  of  days  missed  by 
each  such  child  for  work,  during 
period  studied  

o 

741A 

The  minimum  school  term  for  West  Virginia  is  130  days. 
From  the  table,  then,  26  per  cent  of  the  club  members  7  to  14 
years  of  age  had  each  been  kept  out  of  school  for  work  an 
average  of  13^  days  up  to  the  time  of  our  visit,  or  approxi- 
mately 10  per  cent  of  the  school  term;  30  per  cent  of  those 
of  this  same  age  who  are  not  club  members  had  each  been 
kept  out  of  school  for  work  an  average  of  31  days  up  to  the 
time  of  our  visit,  or  23.8  per  cent  of  the  school  term.  There 
were  no  club  members  15  and  16  years  of  age  below  the 
eighth  grade  who  were  kept  out  of  school  for  work,  but  15 
non-club  members  of  the  same  age  and  standing,  or  9  per 
cent  of  the  total,  had  each  missed  an  average  of  74^  days 
up  to  the  time  of  our  visit,  or  57  per  cent  of  the  school  term. 
These  figures  speak  for  themselves;  moreover,  they  were 
obtained  from  parents  in  communities  where  teachers  do  not 
recognize  farm  work  as  a  valid  excuse  for  absence.  If  we 
had  visited  each  school  at  the  end  of  its  term  and  obtained 
the  complete  records  of  absence,  the  figures  would  have  been 
worse. 

What  effect  has  this  absence  from  school  on  the  education 
and  training  of  the  children?  According  to  our  present 


76 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


standard  we  judge  a  child's  educational  advancement  by  the 
grade  he  has  reached  in  school  at  a  given  age.  In  the  follow- 
ing table,  compiled  to  show  the  variation  from  normal  grade, 
a  variation  of  two  grades  has  been  allowed ;  for  example,  a 
child  10  years  old,  who  is  in  the  third,  fourth,  or  fifth  grade, 
is  considered  in  his  normal  grade,  although  at  his  age  he 
should  be  in  the  fifth  grade  if  he  started  at  the  age  of  six. 
This  method  of  computing  seems  fair  considering  the  length 
of  term  and  type  of  the  average  rural  school.  Records  were 
obtained  for  the  same  children  as  shown  in  the  table  above. 


Number  and  Percentage  of  Club  Members  and  Non-Club  Members 
in,  above,  and  below  Normal  Grades  at  School 


Above 
Normal 

Normal 

Below  Normal 

Totals 

No. 

Per 

Cent 

No. 

Per 

Cent 

No. 

Per 

Cent 

No. 

Per 

Cent 

Club  members  

3 

I 

3-03 

55 

55-5 

41  * 

41.4 

99 

100 

Non-club   members  . 

0.6 

65 

40.6 

94 

587 

160 

IOO 

1  This  number  includes  six  club  members  16  years  old  who  had  passed  and 
were  repeating  the  8th  grade  because  no  high-school  was  available.  If  they 
are  counted  as  being  in  normal  grade,  then  the  percentage  of  this  group  below 
normal  grade  would  be  lowered  to  35.3.  There  were  no  such  repeaters  in  the 
other  group. 


Those  above  grade  are  few  in  number — three  club  mem- 
bers and  one  non-club  member.  Of  the  club  members  over 
half  are  in  their  normal  grades,  as  against  40.6  per  cent  of 
the  non-club  members;  41.4  per  cent  (or  35.3  per  cent  if 
counted  as  indicated  in  note  above)  of  club  members  and 
58.7  per  cent  of  non-club  members  are  below  normal  grade 
even  with  this  generous  allowance  for  grade  distribution. 

From  these  tables  we  note  that  those  who  are  members  of 
clubs  are  kept  out  of  school  fewer  days  for  work  than  non- 
club  members,  that  a  higher  percentage  of  members  are  in 
normal  grades,  and  that  poor  attendance  is  causing  slow 
advancement.  The  poor  condition  of  the  schools  themselves 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  77 

is  the  real  cause  of  poor  attendance,  but  this  chapter  is  not 
concerned  with  the  remedying  of  that  condition  but  with  the 
situation  as  it  is.  Under  existing  conditions  work  is  inter- 
fering with  the  rural  child's  education.  Because  it  affects 
his  education,  some  at  least  of  the  work  the  rural  child  does 
must  be  branded  as  child  labor. 

If  we  hold  to  the  principle  that  every  child  is  entitled  to 
an  education,  then  so  far  as  we  find  that  work  is  interfering 
with  this,  we  must  find  some  means  to  prevent  it.  From 
this  study,  accepting  school  conditions  as  they  are,  we  are 
ready  to  say  that  work  actually  interferes  with  education, 
but  before  we  can  find  a  means  of  controlling  it,  we  must 
find  its  cause.  If  it  is  necessary  for  children  to  labor  be- 
cause of  poor  economic  returns  to  those  engaged  in  farming, 
a  program  which  will  increase  the  returns  to  this  class  will 
have  to  be  drawn  up  and  carried  out  before  children  can  be 
freed  from  this  burden.  On  the  other  hand,  if  this  work  is 
the  result  of  misconception  by  the  parent  of  his  relation  to 
his  child,  or  of  indifference  to  the  schools,  the  program 
should  be  one  of  education  and  compulsion  of  the  parent. 
But  the  fundamental  program  is  improvement  of  the  schools 
themselves.  The  state  should  provide  agencies  to  promote 
such  education,  and  enact  such  laws  and  provide  such  means 
of  enforcement  as,  together  with  school  improvement,  would 
correct  this  indifference. 

FROM  THE  VIEWPOINT  OF  HEALTH 

Perhaps  more  than  in  any  other  kind  of  work  does  a  man's 
success  in  farming  depend  on  his  health  and  strength.  This 
physical  strength  is  so  important  that  the  idea  has  become 
popular  that  the  only  personal  equipment  a  man  needs  to 
make  a  successful  farmer  is  plenty  of  muscle,  bone,  and 
endurance;  hence  the  old  saying,  "It  takes  a  man  with  a 
strong  back  and  a  weak  mind  to  make  a  good  farmer."  A 
farmer  needs  much  more  than  brute  strength  to-day,  but  this 
is  still  essential.  Yet,  recall  the  older  farm  men  and  women 


78  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

of  your  acquaintance:  the  great  majority  are  broken  and 
aged  beyond  their  years;  many  live  to  an  old  age,  but  their 
active  life  is  over  soon  after  middle  age,  and  when  other  men 
are  in  their  prime,  they  are  on  the  decline.  Is  this  the  price 
they  must  pay  for  feeding  humanity  ?  It  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine how  much  of  this  is  due  to  work  done  in  childhood, 
work  done  in  manhood,  or  how  much  to  living  conditions. 
To  ascertain  the  facts  would  require  an  intensive  and  special- 
ized study.  Let  us  review  briefly  some  of  the  work  children 
are  doing  and  see  whether  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  one 
source  of  broken-in-health  adults  is  child  labor.  First,  the 
chores :  they  must  be  done  every  day,  regardless  of  weather. 
The  average  rural  child  does  not  have  adequate  clothing  to 
protect  him  from  inclement  weather.  In  doing  some  of  his 
chores  he  cannot  carry  an  umbrella  or  wear  an  overcoat  or 
raincoat.  Ofter  he  becomes  damp  with  perspiration  while 
feeding  stock  in  the  barn,  and  then  another  chore  calls  him 
out  into  the  cold.  Many  start  the  day  at  school  with  wet 
feet  and  clothing.  The  actual  work  of  performing  chores 
should  not  be  injurious,  but  the  conditions  under  which  it  is 
done  must  make  it  harmful  to  many.  Colds  are  common 
among  rural  children  in  the  winter,  and  are  caused  to  a  great 
extent  by  their  exposure.  One  cold  does  some  harm,  and 
when  they  occur  repeatedly  the  child's  health  is  seriously 
endangered.  Exposure  is  injurious  to  adults — how  much 
more  so  to  children?  Too  often  the  child  on  the  farm  is 
given  work  without  any  consideration  of  the  exposure  in- 
volved. 

Aside  from  the  chores,  the  work  most  common  to  all  chil- 
dren on  the  farm  is  hoeing.  The  child  has  this  job  because 
it  is  a  very  easy  task  to  cut  a  weed  or  hoe  a  hill  of  corn,  but 
continued  through  long  hours  and  in  the  beaming  sun  the 
resulting  fatigue  is  great.  Extreme  fatigue  from  any  cause 
is  injurious  to  health.  The  adults  of  the  farm  do  very  little 
hoeing  when  there  are  children  enough  to  do  it.  A  week's 
work  with  the  hoe  is  the  hardest  work  a  farm  can  offer.  In 
many  instances  the  adult  wilfully  shifts  this  onto  the  little 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  79 

fellow  because  it  is  too  tiresome  for  him.  Most  work  on 
the  farm  requires  the  use  of  certain  muscles  all  the  time,  and 
does  not  make  for  the  best  all-round  physical  development. 

At  harvest  and  threshing  time  there  is  always  a  rush. 
The  hours  are  long,  often  12  to  14  daily,  and  in  the  excite- 
ment of  the  rush  a  child  will  often  do  work  not  fit  for  him. 
This  season  is  short  but  it  is  long  enough  for  a  child  to 
receive  a  lifetime  injury.  A  growing  boy  insists  on  doing  a 
man's  work  and  the  older  folks  raise  no  voice  in  protest,  for 
isn't  it  the  place  of  the  young  fellow  to  make  it  easier  for  the 
man  who,  as  he  sees  it,  has  already  done  his  share  of  the 
work?  The  writer  remembers  quite  distinctly  threshing 
time  on  Mr.  Jones's  farm.  Mr.  Jones's  son,  John,  was  13 
years  old  and  fairly  strong  for  his  age.  His  task  was  to 
help  the  hired  man  haul  the  sacks  of  wheat  from  the  thresher 
to  the  granary.  There  are  usually  plenty  of  men  standing 
around  the  machine  who  will  help  load  the  wagon,  but  only 
John  and  the  hired  man  went  to  the  granary.  The  supply 
of  sacks  was  limited  and  they  had,  therefore,  to  be  emptied 
and  returned  promptly.  The  sacks  held  two  bushels,  120 
pounds.  John  lifted  them  out  of  the  wagon  and  the  hired 
man  emptied  them.  The  boy  was  determined  that  the 
machine  should  not  stop  for  want  of  sacks  so  he  worked 
with  his  whole  strength.  He  did  this  for  only  a  half  day, 
but,  when  the  excitement  was  over,  he  felt  a  dull  ache  in  his 
back.  The  effects  of  this  work  remain  with  him  yet  in  the 
form  of  a  weak,  aching  back,  and  to-day  in  what  should  be 
the  prime  of  his  life  he  cannot  lift  the  weight  he  could  when 
he  was  13.  These  few  hours'  work  cost  John  years  of  suf- 
fering and  decidedly  lowered  his  efficiency.  Such  small 
injuries,  when  accumulated,  leave  our  rural  population  unfit 
long  before  they  should  become  so. 

There  is  no  more  delightful  work  on  the  farm  than  making 
nice,  clean  hay.  It  must  be  made  when  the  weather  is  warm 
and  the  sun  is  shining,  yet  it  is  seldom  that  a  farmer  gets 
his  hay  harvested  without  some  rain,  and  as  a  result  dirt  and 
dust  are  on  it.  Farmer  Johnson  had  thirty  acres  of  very 


8o  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

fertile  bottom  land  in  permanent  meadow.  In  fair  weather 
he  could  harvest  this  and  his  upland  hay  in  about  20  days. 
A  fair-sized  stream  ran  through  the  meadow,  and  every 
third  year,  on  the  average,  in  spring  or  early  summer,  would 
overflow  its  banks,  leaving  the  hay  sanded,  which  would 
injure  but  not  spoil  the  crop.  There  were  three  boys  in  the 
family,  and  one  of  their  jobs  was  to  place  and  tramp  the  hay 
in  the  mow  after  it  had  been  pulled  up  with  a  hay  fork. 
A  heavy  cloud  of  dust  hung  in  the  barn,  yet  the  boys  worked 
in  it  through  the  season.  This  work  lasted  only  a  month 
at  the  most  and  the  heaviest  dust  occurred  only  every  three 
years,  but  that  may  be  enough  to  do  lasting  injury.  We 
certainly  would  not  permit  children  to  work  in  a  factory 
that  long  in  even  a  small  portion  of  such  dust.  Not  only 
is  there  dust  at  hay  time  but  also  in  threshing,  shredding, 
and  always  when  feeding.  A  farmer  may  not  like  dust  in 
the  barn  because  it  injures  his  stock,  but  that  it  might  injure 
the  health  of  his  boy  may  never  occur  to  him. 

Farm  machinery  is  wholly  unprotected.  The  inventors 
and  manufacturers  have  given  no  attention  to  its  protection 
because  this  has  not  been  demanded  and  it  sells  as  well  or 
better  without.  It  is  more  of  an  accident  that  a  child  does 
not  get  injured  by  farm  machinery  than  that  he  does.  Many 
adult  farmers  carry  the  marks  of  injuries  by  farm  machinery. 
Farmers  will  tell  a  boy  that  he  should  "be  careful"  around 
dangerous  machinery,  and  it  is  true  that  a  boy  sufficiently 
careful  need  not  be  injured  by  farm  machinery;  but  a  boy 
sufficiently  careful  need  not  receive  injury  from  the  exposed 
cogs,  belts,  etc.,  in  a  factory,  yet  do  we  let  the  factory  owner 
off  with  his  warning  to  his  employees  to  "be  careful"  ?  Then 
why  the  farmer?  A  12-year-old  boy,  sent  out  by  his 
father  with  a  mowing  machine,  was  removing  a  stick  caught 
in  the  sickle  when  the  horses  moved  and  two  ringers  of  the 
boy's  right  hand  fell  to  the  ground. 

Children  are  often  sent  out  with  teams  and  implements  they 
cannot  manage  and  an  accident  occurs.  A  farmer  sent  his 
loyear-old  boy  to  harrow  a  field  with  a  section  harrow. 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  81 

The  boy  lifted  the  harrow  to  clean  some  trash  from  under  it ; 
the  harrow  was  too  heavy  for  him  to  hold  and  when  he 
dropped  it  one  tooth  went  through  his  foot.  A  stiffened 
joint  of  the  big  toe  and  a  boy  lame  for  life  resulted. 
Another  farmer  sent  his  1 4-year-old  boy,  with  a  team 
of  young  mules,  not  well  broken,  for  a  piece  of  machinery  a 
mile  away.  On  the  way  the  mules  became  frightened,  the  boy 
fell  from  the  back  of  one,  became  entangled  in  the  harness 
and  was  dragged  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  He  was  picked  up 
unconscious  and  with  a  broken  arm.  These  are  really  not 
accidents — they  are  the  natural  result  of  children  being  com- 
pelled to  do  the  work  of  adults. 

Some  of  the  work  children  do  on  farms  is  undoubtedly 
injurious  to  health.  To  what  extent  we  cannot  say,  but  in 
so  far  as  it  injures  health  it  is  child  labor. 

FROM   THE  VIEWPOINT  OF  RECREATION 

Work  is  not  the  principal  cause  of  poor  recreational  con- 
ditions in  the  country,  but  it  does  have  some  share  in  causing 
them.  More  often  it  is  an  excuse  rather  than  a  necessity. 
The  great  ambition  of  the  farmer  has  been  to  get  a  few 
dollars  ahead;  he  has  not  made  as  much  as  our  self-made 
millionaires,  but  on  the  whole  his  mind  is  just  as  much  taken 
up  with  it  as  theirs.  Play  and  recreation  have  been  looked 
upon  as  idleness.  If  a  farmer's  children  did  not  work  as 
hard  as  his  neighbor's,  if  they  went  to  ball-games  on  Satur- 
day, or  took  off  a  day  through  the  week  for  a  picnic,  they 
were  branded  in  the  community  as  a  "shiftless  bunch."  An 
ambitious  parent  does  not  like  to  have  this  reputation.  Idle- 
ness is  not  good  for  any  one ;  play  is  idleness,  therefore  play 
is  good  for  no  one — this  is  how  they  reason,  hence  work  is 
the  salvation  of  the  child.  The  lack  of  wholesome  play 
causes  parents  to  think  there  is  no  such  thing.  This  com- 
bination of  the  lack  of  wholesome  play  with  the  horror  of 
idleness  has  made  the  rural  child's  life  an  orgy  of  work. 
In  talking  to  one  farmer  about  the  play  of  his  children,  he 


82  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

answered:  "My  boy  plays  with  a  grubbin'  hoe,  grubbin' 
sprouts  and  briers.  In  wet  weather  he  cuts  wood.  That's 
the  kind  of  play  that's  good  for  'im."  In  talking  further 
with  this  father  it  was  found  that  it  was  not  necessary  for 
the  boy  to  work  all  the  time  but  that  he  was  made  to  work 
just  to  be  kept  busy.  The  most  common  answer  received 
to  the  question  about  play  and  recreation  is,  "They  don't 
have  no  time  for  play."  Were  it  not  for  the  prejudice 
against  play  there  would  be  ample  time  for  it,  and  children 
would  be  relieved  of  the  extra  work  put  on  them  just  to 
keep  them  out  of  "divilment."  Such  time  as  the  rural  child 
has  free  from  work  he  usually  spends  in  "settin'  around." 
He  does  not  know  how  to  play.  Play  is  not  idleness,  and 
when  good  and  wholesome  play  is  provided  for  the  country 
child,  when  parents  recognize  its  place  in  childhood,  the 
problem  of  rural  child  labor  will  be  far  on  the  way  to 
solution. 

There  are  a  few  children  in  every  community  who  are 
compelled  to  work  constantly  because  of  the  dollars  they  can 
make  and  save  for  their  parents.  Mr.  Edwards  is  a  pros- 
perous farmer  in  a  prosperous  community.  He  has  three 
boys,  13,  15,  and  16  years  old.  A  Chautauqua  was  held  in 
his  community  recently.  He  was  one  of  the  "guarantors," 
so  he  must  have  been  favorably  inclined  toward  it.  The 
boys  wanted  to  attend,  for  they  enjoyed  things  of  that  kind, 
but  they  did  not  do  so.  When  Mr.  Edwards  was  asked 
why  this  was,  he  answered :  "They  have  to  work  in  the  day- 
time and  I  make  them  stay  home  and  rest  at  night  so  they 
will  be  worth  something  for  the  next  day."  Fortunately 
this  group  is  in  the  minority. 

Work  does,  however,  interfere  with  recreation  in  another 
and  perhaps  more  serious  way.  When  there  is  anything  of 
a  recreational  nature  in  the  community,  there  is  usually 
certain  work  that,  to  the  farmer,  seems  urgent.  The  chil- 
dren are  kept  at  home  to  do  this  work  which  might  well 
have  waited  till  the  next  day,  thus  missing  the  chance.  For 
a  few  days  following  the  children  may  have  comparatively 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  83 

little  to  do,  but  then  there  is  no  "circus"  to  see.  The  thrifty 
farmer  delights  to  be  seen  in  the  fields  with  his  children  on 
holidays  and  picnic  days,  while  his  "no  'count"  neighbors 
enjoy  a  day's  outing.  They  will  have  to  work  to-morrow. 
He  stayed  at  home  and  worked  to-day,  and  to-morrow  he 
can  glory  in  the  fact  that  his  work  is  "up"  and  can  watch 
the  others  work,  saying  to  himself,  "If  they  had  not  been 
running  around  they  would  be  'up'  with  their  work,  too" — 
he  reasons.  He  consoles  his  children  by  telling  them  how 
much  better  it  is  to  have  finished  the  work  a  day  sooner  than 
to  have  attended  the  picnic. 

The  present  attitude  makes  work  interfere  with  recreation, 
but  with  a  change  in  this  attitude  there  will  be  plenty  of 
time  for  wholesome  play. 

EDUCATIONAL   VALUE   OF    WORK 

Work,  though  it  interferes  with  school  attendance,  may 
nevertheless  be  educational.  In  this  study  we  have  tried  to 
determine  how  many  children  were  receiving  anything  of 
educational  value  from  their  work.  All  children  born  on 
the  farm  will  not  stay  there,  nor  is  it  desirable  that  they 
should  do  so;  but,  whether  they  stay  or  go  elsewhere,  they 
should  get  something  of  educational  value  out  of  their  work 
while  there.  When  a  child  spends  most  of  his  time  at  routine 
work,  such  as  hoeing,  ploughing,  washing  dishes,  making 
beds,  and  doing  chores,  the  educational  value  is  slight.  This 
is  only  drudgery,  is  easily  learned,  and  prepares  him  for 
nothing  better.  If,  in  addition,  he  feeds  some  animals, 
studying  the  results  of  different  kinds  and  amounts  of  feed ; 
and  cares  for  certain  animals,  raising  some  young ;  cultivates 
corn,  selecting  seed,  studying  and  using  best  methods  of 
culture,  and  keeping  a  record  of  cost  of  production ;  prunes 
and  sprays  some  trees,  learns  to  pack  fruit,  etc.,  the  boy  is 
really  getting  an  education  along  with  his  work.  If  a  girl, 
in  addition  to  the  drudgery  of  housework,  learns  to  cook 
well;  learns  something  of  the  food  value  of  the  meals  she 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


prepares ;  learns  to  serve ;  learns  best  methods  of  caring  for 
milk  and  butter;  learns  to  feed,  cull,  and  care  for  a  flock 
of  poultry ;  learns  when,  how,  and  what  to  plant  in  a  garden ; 
learns  how  to  can  and  to  preserve;  learns  to  sew  and  to 
select  material  for  clothing;  learns  to  keep  a  simple  record 
of  household  expenses,  etc.,  she  is  being  educated  along  with 
her  work.  Using  this  as  a  basis,  we  have  classified  children 
into  two  groups:  those  whose  work  is  fairly  educational, 
and  those  whose  work  is  not  educational.  This  classification 
is  based  upon  talks  with  children  and  parents  in  their  own 
homes.  These  children  are  divided  again  into  "club  mem- 
bers" and  "non-club  members,"  for  if  nothing  else  can  be 
said  for  the  club  work,  it  is  educational. 

Number  of  Club  and  Non-Club  Members  Whose  Work  Is  Educa- 
tional and  Not  Educational 


Club  Members 

Non-Club  Members 

Children  whose  work  is  fairly 
educational  

oe 

•50 

Children  whose  work  is  not 
educational  

4 

121 

Ninety-five  of  the  club  members  are  doing  work  from 
which  they  receive  a  good  deal  of  educational  value,  as  are 
39  of  the  non-club  members.  Four  club  members  have  not 
begun  their  projects.  One  hundred  twenty-one  of  the  non- 
club  members  get  very  little  of  educational  value  from  their 
labor,  and  without  some  other  influence  will  become  the 
shiftless  farmer  or  casual  laborer  of  the  future. 

The  educational  value  of  work  depends  to  a  great  extent 
on  the  instruction  the  child  receives.  He  may  receive  proper 
instruction  from  progressive  parents,  teachers,  or  other  agents 
or  individuals  in  the  community.  The  most  desirable  place 
for  a  child  to  receive  such  instruction  is  at  home  and  from 
his  parents.  In  talking  with  mothers  and  fathers  we  tried 
to  ascertain  the  kind  of  instruction  they  were  giving  their 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  85 

children,  whether  they  tried  to  learn  the  best  methods  of 
doing  things  and  then  instructed  the  children  in  those 
methods,  or  whether  they  let  them  grow  up  under  the  old 
methods  of  farming  and  housekeeping.  This  classification, 
again,  is  based  on  judgment  after  having  talked  with  parents 
in  their  own  homes. 

Number  of  Children  Receiving  Proper  and  Number  Receiving  Un- 
suitable Instruction  from  Parents 


Club  Members 

Non-Club  Members 

Children  receiving  proper  in- 
struction from  parents  

69 

39 

Children  receiving  unsuitable 
instruction  from  parents  

30 

121 

Sixty-nine  of  the  99  club  members  are  receiving  proper 
instruction  from  progressive  parents,  while  30  must  depend 
on  the  teacher  and  county  agents ;  39  of  the  non-club  mem- 
bers are  receiving  proper  instruction  from  progressive  par- 
ents, while  121  must  look  elsewhere  for  it. 


SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  WORK 

If  a  child  is  a  partner  in  the  work  of  the  farm  he  should 
be  a  partner  in  the  profits.  If  he  has  a  personal  interest 
in  its  affairs  the  drudgery  is  lightened.  A  fourteen- 
year-old  boy,  talking  about  the  work  on  the  farm  and  how 
he  liked  it,  said:  "I  ain't  goin'  to  stay  here  much  longer; 
I  have  to  work  myself  to  death  and  don't  get  nothing  out  of 
it;  never  get  to  go  nowhurs.  I  don't  like  it  and  ain't  goin' 
to  stay."  Many  a  farm  child  is  forced  to  work  when  he  is 
not  interested,  and  when  he  knows  he  will  receive  nothing 
out  of  it  but  his  "board  and  keep."  With  such  treatment 
he  may  become  a  social  misfit,  a  person  disliking  work  of 
any  kind,  a  drag  on  society.  Many  farm  boys  reach  matur- 
ity owning  nothing.  All  they  have  made  has  gone  back  to 


86 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


the  farm.  At  maturity  they  must  start  with  what  their 
father  gives  them  or  nothing.  They  do  not  acquire  the  habit 
of  saving  when  young,  for  they  have  nothing  to  save.  We 
inquired  how  many  children  owned  anything  on  the  farm, 
received  any  pay  for  work  done  at  home,  or  had  a  share 
in  the  crops  or  live  stock.  They  have  been  divided  again 
into  club  members  and  non-club  members,  for  one  require- 
ment of  the  clubs  is  that  the  member  own  his  project. 

Number  of  Children  Owning  Anything,  Receiving  Pay  for  Services, 
or  Having  Share  in  Products 


Club  Members 

Non-Club  Members 

Number  of  children  with  such 
benefits  

oo 

•at 

Number  of  children  without 
such  benefits  

o 

I2Q 

All  of  the  club  members  enjoyed  some  of  these  benefits 
and  eight  owned  something  besides  their  projects.  Thirty- 
one  or  24  per  cent  of  the  non-club  members  enjoyed  some 
of  these  benefits,  while  129  or  76  per  cent  had  nothing  what- 
ever of  their  own. 

An  inquiry  was  also  made  as  to  the  number  of  children 
beginning  to  acquire  the  habit  of  saving.  The  following 
table  shows  the  results  of  this  inquiry: 

Children  Having  Savings  Account  in  Bank 


Club  Members 

Non-Club  Members 

Number  of  children  having 
savings  account  

38 

12 

Number  of  children  having  no 
savings  account  

6l 

148 

Thirty-eight  per  cent  of  the  club  members  had  some  money 
saved,  as  against  7.9  per  cent  of  the  non-club  members. 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  87 

Several  club  members  had  used  their  earnings  from  projects 
to  defray  expenses  at  high  school.  Sixty-two  per  cent  of 
the  club  members  did  not  have  a  savings  account  as  against 
92.1  per  cent  of  the  non-club  members. 

Information  concerning  the  economic  returns  to  club  chil- 
dren from  their  projects  was  obtained  from  the  office  of  the 
State  Club  Agent.  He  reported  that  each  member  last  year 
had  an  average  net  profit  of  $25.80.  This  net  profit  is 
figured  by  deducting  all  expenses,  including,  besides  other 
expenses,  rent  for  land  and  pay  for  the  member's  own  labor, 
from  the  gross  sales  price.  Of  the  99  members  in  this  study 
85  used  their  profits  themselves  while  14  gave  them  to  their 
parents. 

CHILDREN  "WORKING  OUT" 

The  1910  census  reported  260,195  children  from  10  to  15 
years  of  age  as  "farm  laborers  working  out."  This  means 
children  working  on  farms  under  the  direction  of  persons 
other  than  their  parents.  But  the  census  represents  condi- 
tions on  only  one  day  of  the  year  or  a  cross  section  of  the 
year.  In  the  present  study  we  have  noted  all  children  who 
have  worked  away  from  home  at  any  time  during  the  year. 
Some  of  them  worked  away  only  a  few  days  while  others 
were  hired  out  by  the  month.  Their  work  and  hours  are 
similar  to  those  of  other  farm  children.  Those  working  out 
only  a  few  days  were  generally  helping  a  neighbor  with 
wheat  or  corn  harvest,  picking  apples,  etc.,  while  those  who 
worked  by  the  month  were  "regular  farm  hands."  Of  the 
259  children  studied,  55  or  21.5  per  cent  had  worked  away 
from  home  during  the  past  year.  The  average  number  of 
days  worked  was  not  learned,  but  the  average  amount  of 
money  earned  by  each  at  such  work  was  $33.75.  The  wages 
varied  from  50  cents  to  $2  per  day.  It  is  interesting  to 
know  what  became  of  these  earnings.  The  following  table 
shows  this: 


88  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Disposition  of  Earnings 


Number 

Per  Cent 

Number  giving  earnings  to  parents. 

22 

40 

Number  required  to  buy  clothing 
with  earnings  ...  

2"J 

A'Z 

Number  not  required  to  buy  cloth- 
ing or  give  earnings  to  parents. 

10 

18 

Twenty-two  or  40  per  cent  of  children  who  worked  away 
from  home  were  required  to  give  their  earnings  to  their 
parents ;  42  per  cent  were  required  to  buy  clothing  for  them- 
selves, which  took  all  their  earnings;  and  only  18  per  cent 
had  their  money  to  use  in  other  ways. 


BENEFITS   OF   CLUB    WORK 

In  comparing  the  tables  given  above  it  is  seen  that  club 
work  is  quite  beneficial  to  children.  This  is  even  more 
striking  when  a  community  in  which  it  is  established  is 
visited.  The  club  work  is  doing  more  to  discourage  rural 
child  labor  than  all  other  agencies  combined.  Its  leaders 
have  a  vision  of  child  welfare  and  are  not  promoting  the 
work  with  the  economic  gain  to  the  community  solely  in 
view.  They  are  attacking  the  problem  in  the  right  way, 
substituting  children's  work  for  child  labor. 

Let  us  compare  some  of  the  figures  in  the  preceding  tables 
and  note  some  of  the  things  observed  during  the  study. 
The  parents  of  club  members  have  somewhat  larger  farms. 
This  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  clubs  have  been  started 
in  the  more  progressive  communities  where  county  agents 
are  at  work.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  types  of  families 
studied  were  not  markedly  variant  so  far  as  the  economic 
factor  is  concerned. 

The  educational  features  of  this  work  are  helping  the 
children  decidedly,  even  aiding  them  in  their  promotions  in 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  89 

the  public  schools.  There  are  more  than  twice  as  many 
non-club  members  as  club  members  below  grade  in  school. 
Almost  twice  as  many  non-club  members  as  club  members 
from  7  to  14  years  of  age  were  kept  out  of  school  for  work. 
Nearly  three  times  as  many  days  were  missed  from  school, 
on  the  average,  by  each  non-club  member  as  were  missed  by 
each  club  member  for  work.  About  10  per  cent  of  the  club 
members  have  gone  to  high  school,  while  not  one  of  the 
non-club  members  has  done  so,  among  the  children  studied. 
Six  of  the  club  members  were  repeating  the  eighth  grade 
because  no  high  school  was  available,  while  the  non-club 
members  had  all  dropped  out  by  this  stage.  The  club  work 
and  the  contact  it  gives  with  other  people  is  inspiring  the 
children  to  pursue  their  education.  They  are  making  head- 
way where  they  go  on  to  high  school.  Two  members  entered 
high  school  at  the  county  seat;  they  were  doing  such  good 
work  in  English  composition  that  the  teacher  began  to  sus- 
pect that  they  were  receiving  outside  help.  When  she 
investigated  she  found  that  they  had  been  in  the  club  work 
for  four  years,  and  that  their  good  composition  was  due  to 
their  training  and  experience  in  writing  booklets,  histories 
of  their  projects,  and  keeping  records.  They  were  leaders 
in  their  class  and  in  other  high  school  activities.  Many  a 
rural  child  never  knows  any  one  who  can  inspire  him  to  reach 
out  for  higher  things.  The  biennial  report  of  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Free  Schools  for  the  two  years  ended 
June  30,  1920,  states  that  only  52  per  cent  of  the  teachers 
have  had  any  normal,  high  school,  or  summer  school  training, 
and  that  nearly  all  of  these  are  in  larger  towns  and  cities; 
that  only  one-tenth  of  them  have  had  four  years  in  high 
school.  In  the  chapter  on  "The  Rural  Home"  the  findings 
as  to  the  literacy  and  schooling  of  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  rural  children  are  set  forth,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that 
boys  and  girls  are  not  encouraged  by  their  parents  to  acquire 
all  the  education  available.  On  the  other  hand,  a  county 
agent  must  be  a  college  graduate. 

If  the  county  agent  or  home  demonstration  agent  is  the 


90  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

proper  sort  of  person  in  other  ways,  he  or  she  is  worth  more 
than  his  salary  because  of  the  inspiration  he  gives  to  farm 
boys  and  girls.  Then  there  is  a  chance  for  a  week  at  the 
State  University  and  a  week  at  the  camp  with  some  of  the 
finest  people  in  the  country.  It  is  the  object  of  club  work  to 
help  a  child  find  his  place  in  society,  and  to  help  to  fit  him 
for  that  place.  Too  often  this  work  is  thought  of  as  training 
to  induce  children  to  stay  on  the  farm.  It  undoubtedly  will 
have  a  tendency  to  keep  more  and  a  better  type  there  after 
they  are  taught  the  better  side  of  farming  and  rural  life,  but 
when  a  boy  or  girl  seems  better  suited  to  some  other  work, 
the  ambition  to  take  it  up  is  not  discouraged.  The  education 
and  training  they  get  in  this  work  will  help  them  ever  after- 
wards. They  deal  with  real  live  problems  and  not  merely 
with  the  theories  found  in  text  books. 

The  average  amount  of  clear  money  made  by  each  member 
from  projects  last  year  was  $25.80.  Of  the  number  studied, 
75  per  cent  kept  this  money  for  their  own  use,  38  per  cent 
having  a  bank  account.  The  parent  agrees  that  the  child 
shall  have  the  profits  from  his  project  and  public  opinion  is 
fast  compelling  the  parent  to  live  up  to  this  agreement.  He 
is  learning  that  the  child  is  easier  to  manage  and  takes  a  new 
interest  in  the  farm  when  he  is  a  club  member. 

The  club  members  have  much  more  and  better  recreation 
than  those  not  in  the  club.  Parents  now  permit  them  to 
attend  its  social  and  recreational  activities,  whereas  formerly 
they  frowned  upon  the  same  functions  when  given  under 
other  auspices.  The  older  folks  are  being  reached  through 
the  children  and  a  new  community  life  is  being  developed. 
In  one  community  visited,  in  place  of  the  usual  gossip  in 
the  country  store,  the  main  subject  of  talk  was  the  club  work, 
how  they  could  do  more  for  the  children,  and  a  groping 
after  something  better  for  the  boys  and  girls.  The  attitude 
of  the  great  majority  of  parents  who  have  children  in  this 
work  is  decidedly  favorable,  and  in  communities  where  it 
is  not  organized,  those  who  have  heard  of  the  work  being 
done  elsewhere  express  a  desire  to  have  it  for  their  children. 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  91 

All  who  were  questioned  agreed  that  they  received  more  for 
their  taxes  that  went  into  this  work  than  from  any  other 
public  source.  The  children  like  the  work.  Its  recreational 
side  appeals  to  them  as  much  as  the  project  work  and  a  large 
percentage  of  the  7,163  members  completed  their  projects 
last  year. 

It  has  one  drawback,  however.  It  is  not  reaching  enough 
children.  To  be  successful  it  requires  good  leadership,  and 
there  are  not  enough  men  and  women  devoting  their  time 
to  it.  In  1920  there  were  30  county  agricultural  agents 
giving  approximately  one-third  of  their  time  to  this  work, 
14  home  demonstration  agents  giving  part  of  their  time,  and 
42  club  agents,  20  of  whom  were  giving  full  time  and  the 
remainder  half  time.  They  should  meet  the  clubs  twice  a 
month,  visiting  each  member  at  least  once  a  month  while 
he  is  having  special  problems  with  his  project.  This  would 
require  many  more  people  in  the  work.  If  it  is  a  help  to 
some  rural  children,  as  we  thoroughly  believe,  then  every 
rural  child  is  entitled  to  its  benefits. 


SUMMARY   AND   RECOMMENDATIONS 

Farming  offers  many  opportunities  for  the  employment 
of  children,  beginning  at  a  very  young  age  and  continuing 
throughout  childhood.  There  is  no  uniformity  of  work  and 
no  two  children  necessarily  do  the  same  amount,  or  over  a 
period  of  time  work  under  the  same  conditions.  There  are  so 
many  things  that  children  can  do,  and  do  well,  on  the  farm 
at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  that  the  opportunities  for  child 
labor  are  plentiful.  The  extent  to  which  they  are  employed 
depends  on  two  main  factors:  the  attitude  of  the  parents 
toward  the  work  of  children,  and  the  economic  status  of 
the  home.  The  former  is  by  far  the  most  important  deter- 
mining factor,  and  when  it  is  adverse  to  the  child's  welfare 
and  appears  in  combination  with  an  unfavorable  economic 
status,  the  child  grows  up  under  extremely  unfortunate 
conditions.  The  child  "working  out"  in  agriculture  presents 


92  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

no  more  serious  a  problem  than  the  child  working  on  the 
home  farm.  There  is  a  child  labor  problem  on  the  farms, 
because  some  of  the  work  children  are  doing  is  interfering 
with  their  education,  injuring  the  health  of  some  of  them, 
and  because  the  unfavorable  attitude  toward  recreation  and 
the  belief  that  work  is  the  only  thing  worth  while  for  the 
child,  is  robbing  the  children  of  their  rights  to  recreation  and 
wholesome  play.  The  work  done  by  the  majority  of  rural 
children,  because  of  the  poor  instruction  they  receive,  is  not 
educational.  They  take  very  little  interest  in  the  work 
because  they  receive  no  personal  profits  from  it.  They  are 
not  acquiring  habits  of  saving  or  learning  intelligent  methods 
of  spending.  It  is  a  small  minority  that  are  enjoying  the 
benefits  that  a  home  in  the  country  can  afford.  With  child 
labor  converted  into  children's  work,  which  means  progress 
in  education,  promotion  of  health  and  physical  development, 
direction  of  wholesome  play  and  recreation,  appreciation  of 
the  importance  and  place  of  work,  acquisition  of  thrifty  hab- 
its, and  cooperation  in  community  building,  we  can  conceive 
of  no  better  place  for  the  rearing  of  children.  Under  such 
conditions  rural  children  would  become  the  backbone  of  a 
great  nation.  The  foundation  of  the  rural  structure  is  good ; 
we  need  no  radical  changes,  but  a  gradual  conversion  of  child 
labor  into  children's  work,  with  all  this  term  implies. 

We  are  dealing  here  with  a  scattered  population,  really 
with  individuals.  It  does  not  seem  wise  to  endeavor  to 
control  this  labor  by  laws  similar  to  those  applying  to  indus- 
try. The  enforcement  of  such  laws  alone  would  make  this 
out  of  the  question  for  the  present.  There  must  be  some 
economic  adjustment  before  the  state  can  compel  the  farmer 
to  observe  certain  hours  and  conditions  of  work  for  his 
children;  he  must  be  able  to  support  his  family  without 
sacrificing  the  welfare  of  the  child.  Again  the  individualism 
of  rural  people  will  not  permit  of  too  much  state  control. 
It  is,  nevertheless,  a  matter  for  the  state  to  control,  but  by 
indirect  legislation  which  has  this  object  in  view. 

We  do  not  have  a  cure-all  for  this  problem,  but  until 


CHILD  LABOR  ON  FARMS  93 

further  study  and  better  understanding  of  conditions  suggest  / 
a  better  solution,  there  are  two  recommendations  that  wet 
believe  will  be  of  service: 

1.  Universal  and  strict  enforcement  of  the  compulsory 
school  attendance  laws,  accompanied  by  a  reorganization  of 
the  rural  schools. 

2.  Substitution  of  children's  work  for  child  labor  through 
Four-H  Clubs.     Membership  should  be  made  available  to 
every  rural  child.     The  club  cannot  take  the  place  of  the 
school,  but  should  work  with  it.     The  state  and  the  counties 
co-operating  with  the  Division  of  Extension  should  place  an 
agricultural  and  home  demonstration  agent  in  every  county, 
making  the  salary  and  tenure  of  position  attractive  enough 
to  secure  people  who  can  and  will  handle  the  job.    The 
success  of  a  club  demands  that  a  good  leader  be  in  charge. 
Sufficient  club  leaders  should  be  employed  in  each  county 
to  handle  the  work  successfully,  with  enough  clubs  to  take 
care  of  every  child  who  can  be  persuaded  to  enter  the  work. 
The  clubs  should  meet  at  least  twice  a  month  during  the 
summer.    A  leader  can  handle  six  clubs  and  each  club  could 
embrace  three  or   four  one-room  schools.     These   leaders 
under  the  direction  of  the  county  agent,  until  more  funds  are 
provided  for  the  Division  of  Extension  by  the  state,  could 
well  be  teachers  in  the  better  schools  if  qualified.     These 
teachers  should  be  instructed  in  the  work  by  means  of  short 
courses,  or  if  any  who  have  been  club  members  are  teaching 
and  are  suitable,  they  might  become  leaders.     They  should 
devote   Saturdays  to   club   work  during  the   school   term. 
They  should  be  employed  for  the  full  year,  giving  full  time 
between  school  terms  to  club  work.     The  state  should  pro- 
vide the  Division  of  Extension  with  funds  sufficient  to  pay 
these  club  leaders  between  school  terms.     Their  pay  should 
be  taken  from  school  funds  during  the  school  term.     They 
should  be  selected  by  the  county  board  of  education  and  be 
approved  by  and  under  the  direction  of  the  Division  of 
Extension.     Eventually   these  leaders  should   be   full-time 
club  and  community  leaders. 


CHAPTER  III 

RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE 
Gertrude  H.  Folks 

(Based  on  a  study  of  183  rural  schools  in  the  following 
counties:  B arbour,  Clay,  Grant,  Harrison,  Kanawha, 
McDowell,  Marshall,  Mason,  Morgan,  Ohio,  Pocahontas, 
Randolph,  Ritchie,  Summers,  Upshur,  Wood,  Wyo- 
ming.) 

CHILDREN  in  rural  sections  are  not  receiving  that  educa- 
tion to  which  all  children  are  entitled  and  without  which 
neither  the  individual  nor  society  can  develop  to  the  fullest 
extent. 

Although  by  no  means  the  only  factor  in  education,  it  is 
the  school  about  which  the  education  of  most  children  centers. 
Especially  is  this  true  in  the  country  where  there  are  com- 
paratively few  other  educational  agencies  and  little  utiliza- 
tion of  natural  educational  opportunities.  Although  grade 
in  school  is  too  inflexible  and  too  arbitrary  a  basis  for  esti- 
mating so  intangible  a  thing  as  education,  it  is,  under  our 
present  rural  school  system  and  curriculum,  practically  the 
only  feasible  method.  In  using  this  method,  however,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  even  as  to  scholastic  achievement 
it  is  only  approximate,  for  the  grading  of  most  rural  schools 
is  inaccurate  and  the  work  of  the  different  grades  often  far 
below  that  of  corresponding  grades  in  standard  schools. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  this  would  tend  to  an  under- 
estimation of  retardation,  60  per  cent  of  the  4,529  children 
7  to  1 6  years  of  age,  for  whom  records  were  secured  in  this 
study,  were  found  to  be  retarded ;  25  per  cent  were  normal ; 

94 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE      95 

and  only  15  per  cent  advanced.  These  figures  are  estimated 
on  a  conservative  basis.  Although  the  compulsory  attend- 
ance age  does  not  begin  until  seven,  most  children  enter 
school  at  six;  six  and  seven  years,  therefore,  have  been 
considered  the  normal  age  for  a  child  in  the  first  grade, 
seven  and  eight  in  the  second  grade,  etc.  Not  only  is  the 
percentage  of  children  retarded  high,  but  the  degree  of 
retardation  is  likewise  great.  Of  the  2,687  children  retarded, 
39  per  cent  were  retarded  one  year,  27  per  cent  two  years, 
1 6  per  cent  three  years,  10  per  cent  four  years,  and  8  per 
cent  five  years  or  more.  In  other  words,  one  third  of  all 
the  children  retarded  and  one  fifth  of  all  the  children  in  the 
schools  visited  were  at  least  three  years  backward  in  grade. 

Another  significant  fact  is  the  unusually  marked  increase 
in  retardation  as  the  child  advances  in  age.  Forty-nine  per 
cent  of  the  children  12  years  and  under  were  retarded,  as 
opposed  to  84  per  cent  of  those  over  12.  There  was  an 
even  greater  increase  in  the  degree  of  retardation  of  the 
children  in  the  older  group  as  compared  with  the  younger 
group,  only  n  per  cent  of  the  children  under  12  being 
retarded  for  as  much  as  three  years,  and  43  per  cent  of  the 
children  over  12.  As  the  child  grows  older  the  possibilities 
of  retardation  are,  of  course,  greater ;  and  it  is  to  be  expected 
that  retardation  will  increase.  But  considering  the  high  rate 
of  elimination  of  children  in  country  schools,  particularly 
among  older  and  backward  children,  the  above  ratio  of  four 
to  one  is  abnormal.  Such  cumulative  retardation  suggests 
that  the  factors  causing  retardation  continue  through  the 
child's  school  life  and  with  increasing  intensity. 

A  certain  amount  of  retardation  is  inevitable  and  exists 
even  in  the  best  of  city  school  systems.  Mentally  backward 
if  not  definitely  feeble-minded  children,  and  others  with 
some  physical  defect  which  reacts  upon  their  work,  are  in 
the  schools.  It  is  also  true  that  retardation  is  greater  in 
rural  than  in  city  schools.  There  is  no  general  study  of 
retardation  in  rural  schools  available,  however,  with  which 
to  compare  the  West  Virginia  figures.  Studies  of  25,000 


96  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

children  in  rural  schools  of  Michigan  and  of  30,000  children 
in  rural  schools  of  Colorado  reveal,  on  the  same  scale  of 
measurement,  a  retardation  of  29  and  27  per  cent,  respec- 
tively. These  data,  of  course,  are  not  sufficient  to  generalize 
upon,  but  are,  nevertheless,  a  confirmation  of  a  fact  which 
should  be  self-evident — that  retardation  on  so  great  a  scale 
is  excessive  and  must  be  due  in  part  to  causes  which  can 
be  determined  and  controlled. 

Undoubtedly  one  explanation,  and  probably  the  most  basic, 
is  that  the  children  are  in  school  for  so  short  a  time.  Often 
the  term  is  not  long  enough  to  accomplish  a  year's  work, 
and  even  when  the  school  is  in  session,  children  attend  ir- 
regularly, some  not  at  all. 

The  minimum  term  recognized  as  necessary  for  the  ade- 
quate educational  training  of  the  child  is  nine  months.  This 
standard  was  endorsed  by  the  International  Child  Welfare 
Conference  called  by  the  Children's  Bureau  in  1919.  Even 
before  that  date  many  cities  and  towns  and  a  few  states  had 
adopted  this  minimum,  and  it  is  gradually  being  extended. 
Comparatively  few  rural  schools,  however,  approach  it. 

In  the  United  States  as  a  whole  the  country  child  has  a 
term  36  days  (nearly  two  school  months)  shorter  than  the 
city  child;  in  West  Virginia  it  is  54  days  (nearly  three 
school  months)  shorter.  The  minimum  is  fixed  by  law  at 
130  days  for  the  year  1920-21,  increasing  annually  until 
the  year  1923-24,  when  it  is  to  be  180  days.  But  in  spite 
of  the  law,  even  this  year  many  of  the  schools  have  not 
maintained  a  6^2  months'  term.  This  has  been  due  chiefly 
to  the  teacher  shortage — schools  were  unable  to  secure 
teachers  until  several  months  after  the  regular  date  for 
opening  and  the  parents  were  unwilling  to  support  a 
6l/2  months'  term  which  started  so  late  in  the  fall  or  winter 
that  it  would  keep  the  children  in  school  in  the  spring  when 
their  help  would  be  wanted  for  the  farms.  In  some  localities 
it  has  been  due  to  lack  of  funds. 

In  December,  1920,  the  State  Department  of  Education 
estimated  that  there  were  approximately  15,000  children  who 


Typical  one-room  rural  school.     Note  site,  lack  of  playground  space, 
construction,  lighting,  and  outhouses  on  hillside 


Interior  of  school  shown  above.     For  a  school  of  this  type  it  is 
unusually  well  equipped 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     97 

would  have  no  school  whatever  that  year,  and  over  15,000 
who  had  had  less  than  the  legal  term  the  previous  year. 

In  14  per  cent  of  the  schools  visited  the  term  was  to  end 
before  the  expiration  of  the  legal  minimum — in  many  cases 
at  the  end  of  five  and  in  several  at  the  end  of  2,^/2  months. 
Some  of  these  schools  had  not  opened  until  December, 
January,  or  even  later.  Others  had  opened  on  time,  but  the 
teacher  had  left  during  the  term  and  there  had  been  a  delay — 
sometimes  several  months  in  duration — in  securing  a  new 
one.  In  five  cases  no  teacher  whatever  could  be  secured  for 
the  school  until  the  expiration  of  the  regular  term,  when 
some  teachers  were  persuaded  to  take  a  second  school.  In 
one  district  paying  the  minimum  salary  practically  all  of  the 
schools  had  opened  late  because  of  their  inability  to  secure 
teachers.  This  community  was  visited  before  the  expiration 
of  a  6l/2  months'  term  and  the  schools  were  already  closed. 
Without  the  knowledge  of  the  county  superintendent,  the 
board  of  education  had  reduced  the  term  to  five  months. 
The  secretary  of  the  district  board  stated  that  there  are  in 
this  same  district  seven  schools  not  one  of  which  has  been 
in  session  during  the  last  five  years  for  the  equivalent  of 
even  one  full  term.  It  has  been  difficult  to  secure  teachers 
for  these  schools — some  years  they  have  not  been  taught  at 
all;  other  years  they  have  been  in  session  for  one  or  two 
months  in  the  spring  when  the  regular  school  term  was 
finished  and  teachers  were  released.  One,  in  fact,  has  no 
regular  school  building,  but,  when  a  teacher  can  be  secured, 
school  is  held  in  one  of  the  farm  houses. 

The  superintendent  of  another  county  to  whom  an  inquiry 
was  addressed  in  April  relative  to  the  number  of  schools  in 
session,  wrote:  "It  is  true  that  some  of  the  schools  began 
late,  but  the  board  thought  it  wise  to  have  only  four  or  five 
months  taught  when  they  began  late."  If  the  public  school 
is  to  be  relied  upon  for  the  education  of  rural  children,  the 
first  essential  is  that  it  be  in  session  for  a  period  sufficient 
to  enable  it  to  accomplish  its  purpose.  Even  6^2  months 
is  too  short. 


98  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Equally  important  with  the  short  term  in  causing  retarda- 
tion is  non-attendance. 

A  study  of  the  records  of  4,126  children  of  compulsory 
attendance  age  (7  to  15  years  inclusive)  in  168  rural  schools 
shows  that  of  the  aggregate  number  of  days  the  schools  had 
been  in  session  at  the  date  of  visit,  67,726  days,  or  17  per 
cent,  had  been  missed.  (This  does  not  include  days  lost 
because  of  the  late  entrance  or  early  withdrawal  of  children 
who  moved  in  or  out  of  the  district  during  the  year.)  In 
other  words,  each  child  enrolled  lost  an  average  of  2^2  weeks. 
The  percentage  of  the  term  missed  would  be  even  greater 
than  the  above  figures  would  indicate,  for  in  many  cases  the 
schools  were  visited  two  or  three  months  before  the  close 
of  the  term  and  the  record  for  the  spring  months  in  which 
attendance  invariably  falls  was  therefore  not  included. 

Of  the  3,942  children  enrolled  in  schools  which  had  been 
in  session  for  at  least  two  months  (40  days),  only  n  per 
cent  had  been  daily  attendants;  less  than  two  thirds  had 
attended  for  as  much  as  75  per  cent  of  the  term;  16  per  cent 
had  been  absent  for  more  than  one  half  the  time,  and  7  per 
cent  had  not  been  present  for  even  one  fourth  of  the  time. 

Furthermore,  a  large  number  of  children  were  found  who 
had  never  enrolled.  The  figures  quoted  regarding  the  per- 
centage of  time  missed  do  not  take  into  consideration  the 
fact  that  several  of  the  schools  had  been  in  session  only  a 
few  weeks  and  that  in  some  cases  their  enrolment  included 
only  about  half  of  the  children  who  belonged  in  school. 
Even  in  those  schools  which  had  opened  at  the  regular  time, 
whole  families  of  children  were  found  who  had  not  been 
near  the  school  all  year.  Not  all  of  these  cases  could  be 
followed  up,  but  the  following  are  typical: 

(1)  In  a  single  school  of  a  district  in  M county,  five 

families  with  six  children  between  seven  and  eight  years  of 
age  were  found,  none  of  whom  had  enrolled,  and  concerning 
whom  the  teacher  could  give  no  information. 

(2)  In  a  school  in  S county,  three  families  with  three 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE      99 

children  each  of  compulsory  attendance  age  were  seen,  none 
of  whom  had  enrolled. 

(3)  Another  family  with  nine  children  was  visited.  Five 
were  over  compulsory  attendance  age  and  all  illiterate.  The 
other  four  were  of  school  age  and  had  just  started  to  school 
(two  weeks  before  it  closed)  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives. 


The  situation  regarding  school  attendance  in  these  17 
counties  can  be  considered  typical  of  the  general  situation 
throughout  the  55  counties  of  the  state.  They  were  selected 
with  the  advice  of  the  State  Department  and  include  counties 
with  the  best  and  the  worst  of  schools,  as  well  as  average. 
According  to  the  index  number  of  the  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, which  was  applied  to  each  of  the  55  counties  by  the 
State  Department,  these  17  counties  vary  from  1st  to  52nd 
in  rank,  and  are  generally  distributed. 

Another  indication  that  non-attendance  is  general  is 
afforded  by  a  study  of  the  last  biennial  report  of  the  State 
Department  of  Free  Schools.  During  the  year  ended  June 
30,  1920,  over  10,000  children  between  7  and  14  years — 
4  per  cent — were  not  even  enrolled,  and  nearly  16,000 — 
24  per  cent — between  14  and  16  were  not  enrolled.  Among 
those  enrolled,  the  average  daily  attendance  was  only  73  per 
cent  for  those  between  7  and  14  years  and  70  per  cent  for 
those  between  14  and  16  years.  Again  this  is  a  conservative 
estimate.  The  figures  regarding  enrolment  and  attendance 
are  approximately  accurate,  but  the  enumeration  figures  (on 
which  the  percentage  not  enrolled  is  based)  are  not  accurate 
and  are  undoubtedly  understated.  The  school  census  is 
taken  by  the  teachers — which  is  to  be  commended — but  it  is 
taken  carelessly  and  inefficiently.  In  several  schools  the 
teacher  had  filled  out  the  blank  form  at  the  schoolhouse 
without  visiting  the  families.  A  comparison  of  the  names 
on  the  census  list  and  on  the  school  enrolment  showed 
children  enrolled  but  not  enumerated.  In  12  schools  the 
census  figure,  according  to  this  spring's  census,  was  actually 
less  than  the  number  of  children  residing  in  the  district  and 


ioo  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

enrolled.  On  the  other  hand,  many  children  of  compulsory 
attendance  age  were  enumerated  but  not  enrolled.  Moreover, 
whole  families  of  children  were  found  and  visited  who  were 
neither  enumerated  nor  enrolled,  and  of  whom  the  teacher 
in  some  instances  had  never  heard.  There  were  in  a  single 

community  in  M county,  three  families  of  children  not 

attending  school  all  year ;  the  present  teacher,  district  super- 
visor, attendance  officer,  probation  officer  and  county  school 
superintendent  were  all  questioned,  and  not  one  of  them 
knew  that  the  children  of  these  three  families  were  not 
attending  school. 

That  irregular  attendance  is,  in  part  at  least,  responsible 
for  the  lack  of  education  of  country  children  is  borne  out 
by  the  striking  relationship  between  the  child's  attendance 
record  and  his  progress  in  school.  It  was  found  that  retarda- 
tion was  directly  proportional  to  the  amount  of  absence. 

Although  the  record  for  one  year  is  not  sufficient,  of 
course,  to  account  for  cumulative  retardation,  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  on  the  whole  the  children  who  are  irregular 
attendants  one  year  have  been  irregular  in  the  past.  This 
gives  significance  to  the  table  on  page  101,  showing  the  per- 
centage of  retardation  among  groups  of  children  classified 
according  to  attendance.  Only  those  schools  were  included 
which  had  been  in  session  for  at  least  two  months. 

On  the  whole,  a  distinct  decrease  in  the  percentage  of 
children  advanced  and  normal  and  an  increase  in  the  per- 
centage retarded  accompanies  an  increase  in  the  percentage 
of  non-attendance.  The  degree  of  retardation  is  likewise 
proportional  to  the  amount  of  absence,  the  percentage  of 
the  total  number  retarded,  retarded  for  only  one  year  de- 
creasing from  50  for  daily  attendants  to  35  for  those  absent 
for  as  much  as  75  per  cent  of  the  term,  while  the  percentage 
retarded  for  four  years  increases  from  6  to  14,  and  the 
percentage  retarded  more  than  four  years  from  4  to  12. 

It  is  true  that  these  figures  do  not  bear  out  this  relationship 
in  every  instance,  and  it  is  rather  difficult  to  account  for 
the  slight  decrease  in  the  percentage  retarded  and  the  slight 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     101 


Percentage  of  Children  in  Normal  Grades,  Advanced,  or  Retarded, 
by  Periods  of  Absence 


Percent  of  Total  Num- 

h 

ber  Retarded 

Per  Cent  of  Time 
Absent 

I* 
3£ 

*~ 
—  rf3 

3-3 

fi* 

u  u 

o| 

1! 

2*8 

.£ 
•gg 

•g^ 

J 

"S« 

CO 

« 

•E^ 

3^1 

rtCJ 

fto 

X$ 

is 

<U  8 

II 

3S 

<U-C 

eg 

So  3 

h'o 

&<£ 

z<< 

P^« 

«H 

«H 

«fo 

«Sfe 

Daily  attendants  

451 

31.9 

22. 

46.1 

50.5 

26.9 

12.5 

5-8 

4.3 

Absent,    i   to   25   per 

cent   .... 

2198 

<>78 

18.4 

e38 

42  t; 

27.^ 

16 

0. 

C.2 

Absent,  25  to  50  per 

cent  

666 

2O6 

7  O 

71  ^ 

•JI  7 

20.4 

T« 

12.? 

86 

/      O 

Absent,  50  to  75  per 

cent   

165 

20  O 

7 

7-1 

338 

24.8 

21.  1 

9.4 

IO.O 

Absent,  75  to  100  per 

cent   

?6? 

21.? 

6c 

72.2 

•ic  o 

20.6 

18 

T38 

II.7 

58i 

7.0 

Total  

3942 

26. 

15-2 

394 

26.8' 

16.9 

9-9 

increase  in  the  percentage  normal  of  the  group  absent  for 
more  than  three-fourths  of  the  time  as  compared  with  these 
percentages  for  the  group  absent  from  one-half  to  three- 
fourths  of  the  term.  The  figures  regarding  the  degree  of 
retardation  show  a  more  uniform  rate  of  change  with  in- 
crease in  non-attendance. 

Recognition  of  the  fact  that  irregular  attendance  is  a 
fundamental  cause  of  retardation  suggests  one  method  of 
dealing  with  the  lack  of  education  in  rural  communities. 
It  is  a  platitude  to  say  that  effort  should  be  directed  not  so 
much  towards  removing  illiteracy  in  adults  as  to  its  preven- 
tion through  the  education  of  children.  But  there  is  less 
popular  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  in  order  to  educate 
children  one  must  first  get  them  into  the  schools  and  that 
at  present  we  are  failing  miserably  in  this  respect.  The 
first  step  towards  altering  this  situation  is  to  determine  the 
real  causes  of  non-attendance. 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


Failure  to  understand  and  to  enforce  the  compulsory  at- 
tendance law  is  one  explanation.  On  the  whole  the  com- 
pulsory attendance  law  of  this  state  is  good;  it  requires 
attendance  for  the  entire  session  and  it  recognizes  16  as 
the  desirable  age  limit.  In  brief,  it  provides  that  children 
between  7  and  16  years  must  attend  public  school  for  the 
entire  session,  but  exempts  children  between  14  and  16  who 
are  regularly  employed  for  at  least  six  hours  a  day  or  who 
have  received  written  permission  from  the  county  superin- 
tendent to  work  at  home.  The  usual  exemptions  for  atten- 
dance at  private  schools,  physical  or  mental  incapacity,  ex- 
treme destitution,  distance,  etc.,  are  allowed.  Aside  from 
the  fact  that  children  under  16  should  not  be  excused  for 
work  but  should  be  required  to  attend  school  up  to  the  limit 
of  the  facilities  provided  for  them  by  the  community,  the 
weak  spots  of  the  law  in  its  application  to  rural  schools 
are  two :  ( I )  it  carries  an  exemption  clause  permitting  the 
county  superintendent  or  the  district  supervisor  to  excuse  a 
child  of  any  age  from  attendance  for  any  reason  that  he 
accepts  as  "valid,"  and  (2)  the  appointment  of  full-time 
attendance  officers  is  not  required,  and  in  most  communities 
they  are  employed  on  a  per  diem  basis. 

In  spite  of  the  law,  in  some  districts  no  attendance  officer 
has  been  appointed;  in  others  the  district  supervisor  has 
been  designated,  but  this  part  of  his  work  is  usually  neg- 
lected. Nowhere  is  an  effort  made  to  enforce  the  law  up 
to  1 6  years,  and  even  when  younger  children  stay  out  little 
effort  is  made  to  find  out  why  and  to  urge  them,  or  if  neces- 
sary force  them,  to  return. 

Of  183  schools  visited,  95 — over  one-half — had  reported 
no  cases  of  non-attendance  to  any  one.  In  several  there  had 
been  no  attendance  officer  and  reports  made  to  the  district 
supervisor  had  been  ignored.  In  the  remaining  88  schools 
727  cases  had  been  reported.  In  212  (203  from  one  school) 
fines  had  been  imposed;  in  49  the  children  were  found  to 
be  out  legally ;  in  209  the  children  returned  after  the  parents 
were  notified  (though  in  many  cases  they  remained  for  a 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     103 

short  time  only)  ;  in  the  remaining  257  nothing  whatever 
had  been  done. 

The  State  Department  reports  that  during  the  year  1920 
there  were  731  prosecutions  in  the  state  for  violation  of  the 
compulsory  attendance  law,  516  of  which  resulted  in  con- 
victions. Considering  the  amount  of  non-attendance  in 
West  Virginia  this  is  almost  negligible.  With  such  laxity 
in  its  enforcement,  the  law  becomes  a  dead  letter;  both 
parents  and  children  soon  learn  that  they  have  nothing  to 
fear  from  its  violation.  In  many  cases  they  are  not  even 
familiar  with  its  provisions. 

Without  a  doubt  a  more  rigid  enforcement  of  the  com- 
pulsory attendance  law  would  keep  a  large  number  of  chil- 
dren in  school,  and  no  effort  in  this  direction  should  be 
spared.  Particularly  should  the  law  in  its  application  to 
children  between  14  and  16  be  stressed,  for  neither  parents 
nor  teachers  are  familiar  with  this  phase  of  it.  It  should 
be  made  clear  that  every  such  child  must  attend  school  unless 
he  is  employed  regularly  for  at  least  six  hours  a  day,  or  has 
written  permission  from  the  county  superintendent  to  work 
at  home.  Effort  should  also  be  directed  towards  extending 
gradually  the  scope  of  the  law  until  it  includes  all  children 
under  16  years.  Section  122  (i),  permitting  the  county 
superintendent  or  the  district  supervisor  to  excuse  a  child 
for  any  reason  which  he  accepts  as  "valid,"  should  be  re- 
pealed; for  it  is  open  to  abuse  and  exemptions  specified  in 
the  preceding  paragraph  cover  all  legitimate  cases. 

In  spite  of  the  general  disregard  of  the  compulsory  attend- 
ance law,  however,  to  explain  wholesale  non-attendance 
merely  by  the  failure  to  enforce  the  law  is  begging  the  ques- 
tion. The  use  of  the  law  should  be  necessary  only  as  a  last 
resort  and  for  extreme  cases ;  the  need  of  frequent  recourse 
to  it  in  itself  demands  an  explanation.  Leaving  the  ques- 
tion of  the  failure  of  the  attendance  law  to  reach  offenders — 
what  is  the  real  explanation  of  non-attendance?  In  172 
schools  it  was  possible  through  interviewing  the  teachers 
and  the  children  to  determine  the  causes  of  absence.  Rec- 


104 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


ords  were  taken  for  4,126  children,  totalling  13,292  days  of 
schooling.  Of  this  amount  17  per  cent  had  been  missed. 
Roughly,  the  reasons  given  fall  into  four  groups :  ( I )  illness 
or  physical  incapacity ;  (2)  economic  pressure ;  (3)  location 
of  the  school ;  (4)  indifference  on  the  part  of  parents,  chil- 
dren and  the  community.  The  number  of  days  missed  and 
the  number  of  children  absent  for  each  reason  is  as  follows : 

Number  of  Children  Absent  and  Number  of  Days  Missed  from 
School  with  Per  Cents,  by  Causes  of  Absence 


Cause    of   Absence 

Number  of 
Days  Missed 
on  Account  of 

Per  Cent  of 
Total    Absence 
Due  to 

Number  of 
Children    Ab- 
sent  on   Ac- 
count of 

Per  Cent  of 
Children    Ab- 
sent  on   Ac- 
count of 

Illness  . 

27.248 

40.2 

2HQ 

51.8 

Work  

•"/>-"*f 
I6.Q3Q 

25.O 

10^2 

2<;.'> 

Distance    and 
Weather  
Indifference  

S,7l6 
15,486 
1,129 

8.5 
23.1 
1.7 

pC 

10.  1 

15-7 
1.5 

Miscellaneous  .  . 
Unknown  

825 
383 

i.i 
0.4 

log 
40 

2.6 

0.9 

Total      

67726 

IOO  0 

NOTE. — In  the  third  column  are  included  not  only  the  chief  cause  of  ab- 
sence of  each  child,  but  all  causes,  as  many  children  were  absent  for  more 
than  one  cause.  The  figures  in  the  fourth  column  in  each  case  is  the  per- 
centage of  the  total  number  of  children  enrolled  (4,126)  who  were  absent 
for  each  specified  cause. 


ILLNESS 

At  first  glance  the  chief  cause  of  non-attendance  would 
seem  to  be  illness,  40  per  cent  of  all  absence  being  attributed 
to  this  cause,  and  51  per  cent  of  all  children  enrolled  having 
been  absent  for  this  reason.  It  does  not  follow,  however, 
that  40  per  cent  of  the  absence  was  unavoidable,  nor  that  the 
entire  51  per  cent  of  children  had  a  legitimate  excuse  for 
their  absence.  On  the  contrary,  a  study  of  the  absences 
included  under  this  heading  suggests  that  a  large  percentage 
really  belongs  elsewhere  in  the  table. 

In  the  first  place,  this  figure  is  without  doubt  overstated. 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     105 

Many  teachers,  realizing  that  they  were  in  part  responsible 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law,  were 
inclined  to  account  for  all  absence  on  the  ground  of  sickness 
or  work,  those  two  excuses  being  in  their  minds  the  ones 
which  they  could  legitimately  accept.  Although  an  effort 
was  made  to  convince  the  teacher  that  the  record  of  indi- 
vidual schools  would  not  be  made  public  and  that  in  no 
case  would  it  be  used  against  her,  this  element  of  inaccuracy 
was  not  entirely  overcome. 

In  the  second  place,  teachers  usually  accept  the  excuse 
given  by  the  child  without  making  any  effort  to  verify  it, 
and,  as  might  be  expected,  the  parents  claim  sickness  even 
when  there  is  no  suggestion  of  it.  One  teacher  said  that  she 
never  inquired  into  the  reason  for  a  child's  absence  until  he 
had  been  absent  for  three  consecutive  days,  and  "then  I  have 
to  believe  what  he  says." 

Moreover,  it  was  not  always  possible  to  distinguish  be- 
tween sickness  of  the  child  and  sickness  in  the  home.  This 
group  is  supposed  to  include  only  actual  illness  of  the  child 
or  contagious  illness  in  the  family  which  necessitates  the 
absence  of  the  child  from  school.  Frequently,  however, 
when  the  child  himself  was  not  ill  the  teacher  did  not  know 
whether  the  child  remained  at  home  because  of  contagious 
illness  in  the  family,  because  his  help  was  needed  during  the 
illness  of  other  members  of  the  family,  because  he  couldn't 
come  to  school  alone,  or  merely  because  "he  didn't  want  to 
come."  Undoubtedly,  a  certain  amount  of  absence  attributed 
to  illness  really  belongs  under  the  heading  of  work  at  home, 
and  a  certain  amount  under  indifference. 

That  illness  is  often  merely  an  excuse,  not  a  cause,  is 
strikingly  illustrated  by  a  mountain  school  visited  with  the 
county  superintendent.  Of  the  30  children  of  compulsory 
attendance  age  enrolled,  only  13  were  present  on  the  date 
of  visit.  Child  after  child  had  been  absent  for  periods 
varying  from  two  weeks  to  three  months.  A  new  teacher 
had  just  come  and  knew  nothing  about  the  situation.  When 
the  children  were  questioned  about  their  absence  and  that  of 


io6  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

their  companions,  they  invariably  replied  "measles."  The 
length  of  the  period  of  absence  and  the  fact  that  the  epidemic 
had  run  its  course  led  to  further  inquiries,  and  it  developed 
that  only  two  children  in  the  neighborhood  had  had  measles 
and  of  these  only  one  was  of  school  age.  The  parents  had 
seized  upon  "measles"  as  an  excuse  for  keeping  the  children 
out,  and  the  teacher  had  not  questioned  their  authority  to 
do  so.  Week  after  week  had  passed  and  the  children  had 
not  returned. 

In  another  community  an  epidemic  of  chicken  pox  was 
given  as  the  excuse  for  wholesale  non-attendance,  although 
only  two  members  of  the  school  had  had  the  disease. 

One  family  was  visited  whose  four  children  under  16 
years  of  age  had  not  been  attending  school  all  year.  The 
parents  said  that  the  children  "all  had  measles  in  the  fall" 
and  did  not  know  "school  was  going  on."  The  father  said 
that  he  "believed  in  education"  but  that  no  one  from  the 
school  had  visited  the  home  or  said  anything  about  the 
children's  non-attendance. 

In  still  another  school  57  children  were  enrolled  and  the 
average  attendance  was  18.  The  teacher  said  there  had 
been  epidemics  of  scarlet  fever,  measles  and  whooping  cough 
— the  worst  in  40  years — and  then  added  that  no  effort  had 
been  made  to  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law  after 
the  epidemics  were  over,  and  that  much  of  the  absence  was 
undoubtedly  due  to  indifference. 

Not  only  is  illness  used  as  a  pretext,  but  very  frequently 
children  are  kept  home  because  of  fear  of  illness.  Again, 
this  is  often  merely  a  pretext.  A  certain  amount,  however, 
is  sincere  and  is  prompted  by  concern  for  the  child's  welfare. 
From  one  point  of  view  this  can  be  understood,  for  the 
precautions  taken  by  the  school  to  prevent  the  spread  of 
contagious  disease  are  negligible.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
but  one  more  striking  illustration  of  the  parents'  indifference. 
They  keep  the  children  out  of  school  because  of  the  fear  of 
sickness,  but  at  the  same  time  they  do  nothing  whatever  to 
make  the  school  safe.  They  take  no  interest  in  the  health 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     107 

conditions  of  the  community,  apparently  not  realizing  that 
through  proper  sanitation,  public  health  work  and  preventive 
measures,  the  need  for  this  fear  can  be  removed.  Unconcern 
as  to  the  child's  schooling  results  in  an  apathetic  attitude 
towards  anything  which  interferes  with  it. 

Entirely  aside  from  the  fact  that  conditions  in  most  schools 
are  unsanitary  and  tend  to  promote  the  spread  of  disease, 
there  is  no  effort  made  to  exclude  children  with  communi- 
cable disease.  Teachers  are  authorized  to  do  so,  but  seldom 
exercise  this  power. 

In  one  school  visited  every  child  had  whooping  cough. 
The  schoolroom  sounded  like  a  menagerie.  The  teacher  was 
quite  unconcerned  and  explained  that  they  did  not  have  to 
close  school  "because  they  all  had  it." 

In  another  school  there  had  been  an  epidemic  of  mumps. 
An  effort,  however,  was  made  to  keep  up  attendance  and  the 
children  had  been  out  only  two  or  three  days  "when  they 
were  so  sick  they  just  couldn't  come."  Needless  to  say, 
no  one  in  this  school  escaped,  except  a  few  children  whose 
parents  had  kept  them  at  home. 

Forty  per  cent  of  the  schools  visited  reported  some  kind 
of  an  epidemic  this  winter.  Thirty -two  schools  reported 
measles,  15  whooping  cough,  14  mumps,  with  a  smaller 
number  reporting  other  troubles,  such  as  chicken  pox,  itch, 
small-pox,  scarlet  fever,  grippe,  etc.  This  does  not  include 
several  schools  which  had  been  closed  on  this  account  for 
periods  varying  from  one  to  three  weeks. 

Illness  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  worst  enemies  of  school 
attendance  and  some  absence  due  to  this  cause  is  inevitable. 
A  large  amount  of  the  actual  illness  of  children  in  these 
schools,  however,  is  preventable,  and  the  almost  superstitious 
fear  of  illness  which  also  keeps  children  out  of  school  is 
totally  unnecessary.  Absence  which  could  be  avoided  by 
improving  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  school  plant,  by  the 
isolation  of  children  with  communicable  disease,  and  by  the 
development  of  medical  inspection  and  instruction  along 
health  lines  in  the  schools,  should  really  be  attributed  to  the 


io8  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

indifference  of  the  school  authorities  who  refuse  to  take 
such  precautions  and  of  the  parents  who  fail  to  demand  them. 

ECONOMIC   PRESSURE 

Absence  reported  in  the  table  as  due  to  work  and  to 
poverty  will  be  considered  together.  Here  again  it  was 
impossible  to  determine  to  what  extent  work  or  poverty  was 
actually  the  cause  of  absence  and  to  what  extent  it  was 
merely  used  as  a  pretext  by  the  child  or  his  parents. 

Comparatively  few  of  the  children  absent  because  of  work 
were  employed  away  from  home.  In  most  cases  boys  were 
out  for  farm  work  on  their  own  farm  or  for  miscellaneous 
tasks,  such  as  driving  a  team,  going  to  town,  etc.,  and  girls 
were  out  for  washing,  caring  for  younger  children  and  for 
other  forms  of  home  work.  The  nature  of  the  tasks  which 
farm  children  perform  is  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  "Child 
Labor  on  Farms." 

There  is  no  question  but  that  a  large  number  of  the 
children  working  during  school  hours  could  be  in  school 
without  causing  any  hardship  to  their  families..  (See  chap- 
ter on  "The  Rural  Home.")  Extreme  poverty  does  not 
often  exist,  but  parents  are  accustomed  to  having  the  help 
of  the  children  and  expect  it.  The  children,  likewise,  expect 
to  give  it.  In  other  cases  it  may  be  said  truthfully  that 
farm  work  is  the  excuse  for  or  the  result  of  non-attendance 
rather  than  its  cause.  The  children  do  not  go  to  school,  but 
incidentally  spend  part  of  their  time  in  working. 

In  a  mining  district  many  children  of  compulsory  attend- 
ance age  were  seen  out  of  school.  Some  were  running 
errands,  some  helping  at  home,  some  playing  and  loafing. 
One  or  two,  when  questioned  as  to  why  they  were  not  in 
school,  merely  said,  "We  didn't  want  to  go." 

One  teacher  told  of  a  1 3-year-old  boy  who  had  been  absent 
for  three  months,  "selling  something  and  taking  orders." 
His  father  is  the  teacher  of  a  neighboring  school. 

Another  teacher  gave  as  the  reason  not  only  for  poor 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     109 

attendance  but  for  closing  the  school  before  the  expiration 
of  the  term:  "The  farmers  need  the  children  to  work";  but 
when  pressed  she  added,  "Children  don't  take  any  interest," 
"no  use  wasting  county  money,"  "I  am  home-sick  and  haven't 
been  home  since  Christmas."  It  is  safe  to  conclude  that  the 
first  reason  given  by  the  teacher  told  only  half  the  story, 
and  that  indifference  was  the  primary  factor. 

A  judge  in  one  county  very  intelligently  refuses  to  accept 
farm  work  as  an  excuse  for  non-attendance.  A  man  was 
brought  before  him  for  refusing  to  send  to  school  his  two 
children,  10  and  12  years  of  age,  claiming  that  he  could  not 
support  them  without  their  work.  The  judge  ordered  him 
to  send  the  children  to  school  and  go  before  the  county  board 
and  apply  for  relief.  This  he  refused  to  do  and  thereupon 
was  fined  for  violating  the  law.  The  man  was  known  to 
the  community  and  was  well  able  to  pay  the  fine  as  well 
as  to  send  the  children  to  school. 

Few  judges  and  few  school  people,  however,  will  press  this 
point  or  make  any  effort  to  determine  the  truth  of  the 
parents'  claim  that  they  need  the  help  of  the  children.  In 
one  district  where  an  attempt  was  being  made  to  introduce 
a  nine  months'  term,  the  patrons  refused  to  send  the  children 
or  to  board  the  teacher  after  the  end  of  the  sixth  month, 
claiming  that  they  needed  the  help  of  the  children ;  the  school 
board  did  nothing  about  it. 

This  group  of  children  who  are  out  of  school,  and  are 
working,  or  claim  to  be  working,  but  whose  help  is  not 
needed  on  the  farm,  is  not  only  an  evidence  of  the  indiffer- 
ence of  parents,  but  is  a  reproach  to  the  school  which  has 
failed  to  overcome  the  prejudice  of  the  parents  and  to  gain 
the  interest  of  the  children.  Such  absence  should  be  classi- 
fied rightfully  under  indifference — possibly  justifiable  indif- 
ference. Conditions  in  the  school  which  perpetuate  and 
almost  justify  such  indifference  are  discussed  more  fully 
later. 

There  are  other  children,  however,  from  families  where 
poverty  is  a  factor  and  where  in  order  to  make  the  farm  yield 


i  io  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

a  living  some  help  is  essential.  Under  such  circumstances 
is  the  absence  of  these  children  justifiable?  We  have  already 
come  to  recognize  that  children  should  not  be  allowed  to 
engage  in  industry  even  though  their  parents  need  their 
wages,  but  that  if  the  income  is  insufficient,  relief  should  be 
given.  This  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  controversy.  There 
is  no  reason  for  a  relaxation  of  this  standard  in  its  applica- 
tion to  the  rural  child.  Poverty  of  the  family  or  economic 
necessity  should  not  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  child's 
education,  whether  he  happens  to  live  in  the  city  or  in  the 
country.  It  is  unfair  to  the  child  to  place  him  under  a 
handicap  which  will  mean  that,  due  to  lack  of  education, 
he  may  be  no  more  successful  than  his  parents  and  will  be 
forced,  in  his  turn,  to  depend  upon  the  labor  of  his  children. 

This  is  just  what  has  happened  in  one  case.  Mr.  and 

Mrs.  G ,  66  and  43  years  of  age,  respectively,  are  both 

illiterate.  They  have  six  children,  four  of  whom  are  of 
school  age.  The  three  oldest  are  girls,  14,  13  and  io  years, 
who  are  enrolled  in  school,  but  have  been  absent  more  than 
half  the  time.  The  other  child  of  school  age  is  an  8-year-old 
boy  who  has  never  enrolled.  For  14  years  they  have  been 
living  about  il/2  miles  from  the  schoolhouse  on  land  rented 
from  a  coal  mine  company.  They  pay  $5  a  year  for  as  much 
land  as  they  "want  to  put  under  fence" — about  50  acres  at 
present.  Their  home  is  a  poorly  furnished,  two-room  log 
cabin.  The  father  is  feeble  and  broken  down,  and  the 
mother  does  most  of  the  work.  When  questioned  with 
regard  to  the  absence  of  the  children  from  school  they  said 
that  their  help  was  needed  to  "make  the  crops,"  go  to  the 
store,  etc. — that  without  it  the  family  would  be  dependent 
on  the  county.  As  it  is  the  neighbors  help  them  gather  fuel 
for  the  winter  and  gather  in  the  crops  in  the  fall.  Such  a 
family  should  be  made  to  see  that  it  is  no  more  a  charity 
and  much  more  fair  to  the  children  "to  go  to  the  county" 
for  relief  and  send  the  children  to  school  than  to  depend  on 
their  neighbors  for  help  and  keep  the  children  out  of  school. 

A  similar  case  is  that  of  the  B family:  the  father 

and  mother  are  37  and  32  years  of  age,  respectively,  and 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     in 

there  are  seven  children.  The  four  oldest  are  all  of  school 
age,  being  15,  12,  10  and  8  years.  None  has  gone  beyond 
the  first  grade,  and  none  has  been  enrolled  in  school  this 
year.  The  family  live  only  half  a  mile  from  the  schoolhouse. 
They  lease  all  the  land  they  want  from  a  coal  company  for 
$i  a  year  and  live  in  a  14  by  18  foot  log  cabin  with  a  lean-to 
kitchen  under  the  most  unsanitary  and  wretched  conditions. 

Mr.  B has  consumption  (confirmed  by  the  county  health 

officer),  and  Mrs.  B is  very  frail  and  "weakly."  Mr. 

B occasionally  "goes  to  public  works,"  and  Mrs.  B 

and  the  children  do  the  farm  work.  The  only  certain  sup- 
port for  the  family  is  $5  a  week  in  county  relief  given  in 
the  form  of  a  grocery  order.  The  parents  stated  that  the 
sole  reason  for  the  non-attendance  of  the  children  was  the 
fact  that  they  had  to  do  the  work — carry  goods,  go  to  the 
grocery,  feed  the  pigs  and  "make  the  crops."  The  children 
appear  bright  and  if  educated  could  probably  escape  from 
the  rut  in  which  their  parents  have  fallen.  Already  the 
county  has  admitted  the  principle  of  its  responsibility  by 
giving  grocery  orders;  it  should  carry  this  principle  to  its 
logical  conclusion  and  give  relief  adequate  to  enable  the 
children  to  go  to  the  schools  it  provides  for  them. 

The  idea,  however,  that  the  children's  education  should  be 
given  primary  consideration,  even  to  the  point  of  giving 
relief  to  the  family  to  take  the  place  of  the  child's  work, 
has  not  been  generally  recognized  in  the  country,  either  by 
the  parents,  the  community,  or  school  leaders.  In  each  school 
an  effort  was  made  to  find  out  whether  farm  work  was 
regarded  as  a  legitimate  excuse  by  the  teacher  or  by  the 
parents  of  that  community.  In  the  183  schools,  36  teachers 
admitted  that  they  accepted  the  plea  of  work  as  an  excuse, 
and  12  others  that  they  accepted  it  as  an  excuse  "in  cases 
of  need."  In  over  100  communities,  at  least  part  of  the 
parents  considered  work  a  legal  excuse. 

In  several  districts  non-attendance  because  of  farm  labor 
was  sanctioned  by  the  county  superintendent  and  district 
supervisor,  who  granted  permits  to  children  to  stay  out  for 
work.  In  some  cases  the  permits  were  given  only  to  children 


112  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

over  14  years;  in  some  cases  to  younger  children.  Some 
were  permanent  excuses,  some  for  specific  work,  some  in 
the  form  of  a  general  excuse  for  any  absence  that  the  child 
might  have  during  the  remainder  of  the  term.  The  follow- 
ing are  a  few  instances  of  children  excused  for  work,  and 
of  special  provisions  being  made  to  allow  children  to  work : 

1.  A  14-year-old  boy  in  the  eighth  grade  was  excused 
for  one  month,  in  April,  because  of  farm  work. 

2.  In  another  school  two  boys,  12  and  14  years  of 
age,  were  permitted  to  attend  a  half  day  only  on  account 
of  work,  "whenever  necessary" — usually  once  or  twice 
a  week. 

3.  A  9-year-old  boy  in  the  second  grade  and  two  boys 
of   14  and  15  in  the  eighth  grade  were  excused  for 
work.     The  permits  had  just  been  given  and  no  time 
limit  was  set. 

4.  Two  15-year-old  boys  in  the  eighth  grade  had  been 
excused  for  farm  work  and  had  been  absent  il/2  and 
2^2  months  respectively. 

5.  In  another   school  two   1 5-year-old  boys  in   the 
eighth  grade  had  been  excused  for  the  remainder  of 
the  termr 

6.  In  one  district  three  schools  were  running  on  a 
part  time  basis,  having  only  a  morning  session,  in  order 
that  the  children  might  help  on  the  farms  the  rest  of 
the  day. 

7.  One    county    superintendent    reported    that    fre- 
quently schools  close  in  the  fall  for  the  harvest;  that 
they  do  not  close  in  the  spring,  however,   since  the 
school  term  is  short  enough  not  to  interfere  with  farm 
work — that  when  it  does,  the  parents  "just  keep  them 
home." 

8.  One  judge,  realizing  that  farm  work  is  not  a  legal 
excuse. and  that  he  would  be  obliged  to  fine  the  parents, 
advised  the  attendance  officer  not  to  report  families  in 
which  need  really  existed. 

In  view  of  the  lack  of  social  organizations  in  the  country 
which  could  assist  the  family  to  make  an  adjustment  enabling 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     113 

the  children  to  go  to  school,  it  may  be  necessary  in  some 
cases  to  allow  the  child  to  remain  at  home  to  help  for  a 
temporary  period.  But  to  make  the  work  of  the  school 
subordinate  to  the  need  of  the  farm  is  not  legitimate.  Such 
practices  as  breaking  the  term  and  allowing  children  under  16 
to  leave  school  for  work,  to  drop  out  in  the  spring,  or  to 
attend  irregularly,  should  be  condemned. 

There  are  also  individual  cases  which  must  be  excused — 
that,  for  instance,  of  a  boy  whose  father  was  in  prison,  and 
who  had  missed  two  days  to  bring  in  a  large  flock  of  sheep 
from  the  mountain  when  snow  came.  No  one  would  claim 
that  this  constituted  truancy  or  should  have  been  forbidden. 

The  number  of  those  really  needing  the  help  of  their 
children,  however,  is  far  smaller  than  the  number  who  claim 
that  they  do.  The  much  larger  number  who,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  expect  the  children  to  help,  must  be  educated  to 
realize  the  value  of  education.  The  development  of  the 
club  work  of  the  Extension  Division  of  the  College  of 
Agriculture  will  do  much  along  this  line,  as  a  comparison 
of  the  figures  regarding  the  school  attendance  and  grades  of 
children  in  agricultural  clubs  with  those  for  non-club  mem- 
bers indicates.  (See  chapter  on  "Child  Labor  on  Farms.") 
At  the  same  time  the  schools  must  be  made  more  attractive 
and  more  practical  to  convince  the  parents  of  their  value. 

LOCATION   OF   SCHOOL 

This  also  plays  a  fairly  large  part  in  causing  non-attend- 
ance, 8^2  per  cent  of  all  absence  being  due  directly  or 
indirectly  to  this  factor.  In  some  cases  the  difficulty  is  the 
distance  of  the  school  from  the  homes.  Two  miles  is  the 
maximum  distance  which  a  child  is  compelled  to  go  under 
the  compulsory  attendance  law.  Because  the  school  is  poorly 
located  in  the  district  or  serves  too  wide  an  area,  with  no 
transportation  furnished,  many  children  are  exempted  under 
this  provision.  For  small  children  and  in  bad  weather,  even 
two  miles  is  too  great  a  distance.  In  other  cases  the  school 


ii4  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

may  be  centrally  located  but  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year 
when  the  roads  are  veritable  mudholes  and  the  creeks  are 
high,  it  is  impossible  for  the  children  to  reach  it.  In  fact, 
three  of  the  schools  visited  had  been  closed  on  this  account 
for  a  few  weeks  during  the  early  spring.  No  child,  how- 
ever, should  be  deprived  of  education  because  of  the  inacces- 
sibility of  a  school  to  his  home.  It  would  be  unwise,  of 
course,  to  increase  the  number  of  one-room  schools  in  order 
to  place  one  within  the  two-mile  limit  for  every  child,  but 
consolidation  is  possible  and  transportation  should  be  fur- 
nished to  all  children  not  within  walking  distance.  The 
condition  of  many  of  the  roads  in  West  Virginia,  especially 
in  the  mountain  regions,  makes  this  impracticable  at  the 
present  time,  for  no  method  of  transportation  could  take  the 
children  over  some  of  the  roads  in  the  early  spring ;  but  with 
the  better -road  program  which  has  already  started,  consolida- 
tion should  be  increasingly  possible ;  even  at  the  present  time 
transportation  could  be  furnished  for  many  children  now 
absent  because  of  distance. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

In  this  category  are  included  various  causes  of  absence 
which  cannot  rightly  be  placed  under  any  of  the  other  groups, 
such  as  death  in  the  family,  suspension  from  school,  etc. 
The  number  of  cases  included  under  this  heading,  however, 
is  relatively  small,  and  need  not  be  considered  in  this  dis- 
cussion. 

INDIFFERENCE 

Probably  the  most  basic  of  all  causes  of  non-attendance 
is  indifference.  Indifference  to  education,  and  partcularly 
to  education  expressed  in  terms  of  school  attendance,  is 
very  general  and  is  manifested  not  only  by  parents  and 
children  but  by  the  whole  community,  including  school  people 
themselves. 

In  addition   to  the    15,500  days  of   absence   attributed 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     11$ 

directly  to  indifference  (23  per  cent  of  the  total),  the  dis- 
cussion above  indicates  that  a  considerable  percentage  of 
the  absence  credited  to  illness  and  to  work  should  fall  under 
this  heading.  There  was  hardly  a  school  in  which  some 
instances  of  indifference  were  not  found  and  inquiries  as 
to  the  cause  of  absence  would  bring  forth  replies  of  the 
following  nature:  "lack  of  interest,"  "negligence,"  "failure 
of  parents  to  send,"  "moved  in  order  to  come  late,"  "pure 
loafing  around,"  "don't  like  to  go,"  "lack  of  discipline." 

Indifference  takes  various  forms — in  some  cases  the  par- 
ents find  a  pretext,  as  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  a  twelve- 
year-old  girl  absent  34  days  because  she  "got  mad  at  the 
teacher" ;  and  another  ten-year-old  girl  who  had  been  absent 
for  two  weeks  and  was  not  planning  to  return  to  school  for 
the  rest  of  the  term  because  the  parents  did  not  like  the 
school  trustee.  In  other  cases  the  parents  give  no  reason 
but  merely  assert  their  right  to  do  as  they  wish.  In  one 
school  a  parent  had  refused  to  send  his  child  to  school;  the 
case  was  brought  up  to  court  and  he  was  fined.  He  then 
took  the  attitude  that  this  gave  him  the  right  to  keep  the 
child  out  all  year — in  other  words,  he  had  "bought"  the 
right.  At  the  time  the  school  was  visited  the  case  was  again 
in  court.  The  man  claimed  that  he  needed  the  boy  (who 
was  10  years  of  age)  to  build  a  fence.  The  county  super- 
intendent, however,  said  that  he  was  a  prosperous  farmer 
and  his  action  really  was  due  to  a  dispute  over  the  location 
of  the  school. 

In  this  same  school  there  were  several  other  children  at- 
tending irregularly  because  there  were  two  factions  which 
disagreed  as  to  the  location  of  the  school.  A  new  modern 
building  was  to  have  been  erected,  but  because  the  patrons 
could  reach  no  decision,  an  addition  was  put  on  the  old 
building. 

In  another  school  the  teacher  claimed  that  she  could  not 
enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law,  and  that  the  school 
was  to  close  at  the  end  of  six  months  because  the  patrons 
refused  to  give  her  board. 

Sometimes  indifference  is  sheer  inertia.  Such,  for  in- 
stance, is  the  case  of  the  G family.  They  have  five 


ii6  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

children,  7,  10,  12,  15  and  16  years,  none  of  whom  enrolled 
this  year.  The  family  have  lived  on  their  farm  for  three 
years,  and  own  about  200  acres  of  good  mountain  farm 
land,  with  over  100  under  cultivation.  They  also  own  two 
horses,  one  wagon,  one  buggy,  six  cows,  chickens  and  hogs. 
The  house  is  a  comfortable,  well-built  two-story  frame 
building  with  seven  or  eight  rooms.  The  house  had  recently 
been  painted;  the  lawn  and  garden  were  likewise  in  first 
class  condition.  The  mother  acknowledged  that  none  of  the 
children  had  been  in  school  this  year  and  had  gone  very 
little  last  year.  Her  reasons  were  that  everybody  had 
measles,  her  husband  didn't  believe  in  school,  and  "teacher 
^pn't  larn  'em  anything  nohow."  She  was  perfectly  IrTcnT- 
Terent :  "Not  a  soul  kum  near,  guess  nobody  cared."  They 
live  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  school  house ;  the  road 
leading  down  the  "holler"  was  clear,  well  drained  and  easy  to 
travel.  There  was  no  conceivable  reason  for  the  children's 
absence  other  than  the  utter  indifference  of  the  parents,  both 
of  whom  are  illiterate. 


The  most  remarkable  instance  of  non-attendance,  however, 
due  to  the  refusal  of  the  parents  to  cooperate,  is  the 
following : 

At  a  school  in  a  certain  county  visited  during  the  winter 
three  children  were  present.  For  about  six  weeks,  the 
teacher  said,  attendance  had  been  confined  to  this  number. 
The  neighborhood  had  been  divided  over  the  question  of  the 
location  of  the  new  state  road.  The  teacher  who  was  em- 
ployed belonged  to  one  faction,  "the  mountain  folk,"  and 
the  other  faction,  "the  crick  folk,"  therefore  refused  to  send 
their  children  to  school.  They  had  nothing  against  her  as  a 
teacher,  nothing  against  her  family — except  that  she  be- 
longed to  the  other  faction.  The  board  of  education,  how- 
ever, refused  to  recognize  the  opposition  of  the  "crick  folk" 
and  insisted  upon  her  taking  the  school.  They  appointed  an 
attendance  officer  who  served  for  six  weeks  and  maintained 
a  fairly  good  attendance.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  however, 
without  notifying  either  the  teacher  or  the  board  of  educa- 
tion, he  discontinued  his  work,  and  from  that  day  there  has 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     117 

never  been  an  attendance  of  more  than  six — usually  three — 
although  45  children  were  enumerated. 

In  another  instance  the  indifference  of  the  community 
was  shown  in  a  somewhat  different  way.  The  school  was 
occupied  by  tramps  and  for  six  weeks  the  teacher — "a  little 
mite  of  a  thing" — went  daily  to  the  school  house  and  left 
again  because  no  one  took  the  responsibility  of  putting  out 
the  intruders. 

Another  county  in  which  several  schools  have  not  been  in 
session  for  seven  years  and  others  not  for  two  years,  because 
of  lack  of  funds,  voted  $70,000  for  a  soldiers'  memorial. 

This  indifference  is  not  confined  to  the  parents.  Teachers 
and  school  officers  themselves,  through  the  laissez  faire 
attitude  which  they  assume,  share  the  responsibility.  The 
county  superintendent  is  seldom  in  close  touch  with  his 
schools.  In  more  than  half  the  schools  visited  he  had  not 
made  a  single  visit  during  the  school  year,  and  in  one-third 
he  had  made  but  one.  One  teacher  reported  that  there  was 
so  little  interest  in  education  in  her  neighborhood  that  fro 
school  official  had  visited  her  school  for  over  six  years. 

This  is  partly  a  question  of  salary,  the  amount  paid  to 
county  superintendents  being  too  low  to  secure  men  of 
educational  training,  experience  and  vision,  who  can  formu- 
late and  put  over  a  constructive  program.  Partly  it  is  a 
question  of  the  indifference  of  the  superintendent  and  of 
the  community  which  elects  him. 

Even  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  enforce  the  law  are  subject 
to  the  same  criticism.  The  teacher  of  one  school  said  that 
they  had  been  able  to  do  nothing  about  attendance  because 
the  attendance  officer  did  not  believe  in  compulsory  educa- 
tion. 

In  another  school  a  family  with  five  children  of  schooi 
age  had  moved  into  the  district  in  January  but  did  not  send 
the  children  to  school.  No  effort  had  been  made  by  the 
teacher  or  the  attendance  officer  to  secure  their  attendance. 
In  that  same  district  an  1 1 -year-old  boy  in  the  second 
grade,  who  had  moved  into  the  district  in  November,  had  not 
been  in  school. 

In  another  case  the  teacher  admitted  that  she  had  not 
tried  to  enforce  the  law ;  epidemics  had  interfered  seriously 


n8  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

with  attendance  during  the  first  few  months  and  she  had 
given  it  up  as  a  bad  job  for  this  year. 

In  still  another  school  the  teacher  reported  that  she  could 
not  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law,  and  explained 
that  she  was  teaching  this  year  only  as  a  favor  to  the  school 
board  who  could  secure  no  one  else.  Her  father  kept  the 
store  "across  the  creek"  and  as  the  parents  of  the  children 
were  his  customers,  she  could  not  run  the  risk  of  antagoniz- 
ing them. 

Several  teachers  claimed  that  they  believed  in  compulsory 
attendance,  but  that  it  was  impossible  to  enforce  the  law 
while  public  opinion  was  against  it ;  that  until  parents  recog- 
nized the  value  of  education,  it  was  useless  to  try.  This 
reluctance  of  the  teachers  to  enforce  the  law  until  they  have 
some  degree  of  cooperation  from  the  parents  can  be  under- 
stood, for  not  only  does  the  community  make  it  unpleasant 
for  the  teacher,  in  some  cases  even  refusing  to  board  her, 
but  they  have  been  known  to  take  matters  into  their  own 
hands.  In  one  county  it  was  reported  that  three  school 
houses  had  been  burned  down  during  the  year,  one  because 
of  an  effort  to  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law,  one 
because  of  the  location  of  the  school,  and  one  because  the 
teacher  was  the  daughter  of  a  revenue  officer  and  it  was 
feared  she  might  report  to  her  father. 

Such  instances  as  the  -above  could  be  multiplied  indefi- 
nitely :  they  are  cited  to  show  that  opposition  to  compulsory 
school  attendance  is  common  throughout  the  country  regions, 
especially  in  mountain  sections,  and  that  parents  will  have 
to  be  made  to  realize  that  the  state  has  the  right  to  insist 
upon  the  child's  attendance  at  school.  But  this  is  not  to  be 
accomplished  by  a  mere  display  of  force.  There  is  much 
to  be  said  in  defense  of  the  parents'  attitude,  and  it  is  an 
open  question  whether  the  real  basis  for  their  indifference — 
and  therefore  the  true  explanation  of  non-attendance — is  not 
the  poor  condition  of  the  schools.  From  the  parents'  view- 
point, the  schools  have  been  on  the  defensive  and  have  failed 
to  put  up  a  good  case.  They  feel  that  there  is  little  of 
value  in  the  average  rural  school,  and  are  not  convinced 
that  the  children  are  better  off  in  school  than  on  the  farm! 


A  consolidated  school  in  the  heart  of  the  country.  Pupils  are  trans- 
ported daily.  More  recent  buildings  are  of  more  modern  con- 
struction 


Consolidation  makes  possible  modern  equipment.     Pupil  working  in 
chemical  laboratory  of  school  shown  above 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     119 

A  study  of  conditions  in  the  183  schools  visited  brings  an 
understanding  of  their  attitude — possibly  even  justifies  it. 

THE   SCHOOL   PLANT 

The  schoolhouses  on  the  whole  are  poorly  located,  unat- 
tractive and  frequently  lacking  in  sanitation.  Of  the  183 
schools  visited,  40  per  cent  had  less  than  half  an  acre  of 
ground,  and  less  than  30  per  cent  had  more  than  an  acre. 
The  sites  are  poor,  the  school  usually  being  placed  on  some 
piece  of  land  which  is  wanted  for  no  other  purpose — a  steep 
hillside,  a  rocky  field,  the  edge  of  a  wood,  a  few  feet  of  land 
beside  the  railroad  track.  In  only  71  cases  was  the  site  con- 
sidered good,  and  in  49  it  was  classed  as  very  poor.  In  some 
cases,  it  is  true,  there  was  no  better  site  in  the  vicinity,  but 
seldom  had  an  effort  been  made  to  secure  a  suitable  location. 

For  a  school  in  W county  a  coal  company  had  fur- 
nished the  land.  The  plot  given  was  across  the  railroad 
track  and  part  way  up  a  hill  so  steep  that  in  wet  weather  it 
was  almost  impossible  to  reach.  No  road  led  to  it  and  from 
every  point  of  view  it  was  a  most  undesirable  place.  As 
might  have  been  expected,  attendance  in  this  school  was 
wretched  and  the  teacher  truly  said :  "The  board  should  have 
refused  to  build  a  school  at  all  until  they  were  given  a  decent 
site."  Another  school  in  this  same  county  is  in  dire  need  of 
a  new  building  and,  although  promised,  its  erection  has  been 
postponed  from  year  to  year  because  the  company  will  not 
give  a  suitable  piece  of  land.  Yet  boards  of  education  are 
empowered  to  condemn  land  for  school  sites. 

Frame  buildings  are  used  almost  exclusively — usually  of 
the  "little  red  schoolhouse"  variety.  Even  some  of  those 
built  within  the  last  few  years  are  of  this  same  old-fashioned 
type.  Frequently  when  there  are  more  children  than  can  be 
accommodated  in  a  one-room  school,  the  grades  are  divided 
and  two  of  these  one-room  buildings  are  used,  both  equally 
poor.  In  other  cases  a  two-room  school  is  used,  each  room 
frequently  being  of  the  same  model  as  the  one-room  school. 
Of  the  buildings  seen,  71  were  classed  as  being  in  good  con- 
dition, 82  fair,  and  32  so  poor  as  to  be  unfit  for  use.  In  the 


120  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

majority  of  cases  the  roof,  floor  and  walls  were  reported  as 
satisfactory.  On  the  whole,  the  general  impression  was  of 
very  old  buildings,  hopelessly  out  of  date  and  unsuitable 
for  their  purpose,  but  kept  in  repair. 

In  one  instance  school  was  being  conducted  in  an  old  resi- 
dence. The  school  building  had  burnt  down  two  years  ago 
and  no  effort  had  been  made  to  build  a  new  one.  Instead, 
four  rooms  in  an  old  dilapidated  house  near  a  railroad  track 
had  been  thrown  into  one.  The  rooms  had  once  been 
papered,  but  the  paper  was  now  hanging  in  shreds  from  the 
wall.  There  were  only  four  small  windows  for  this  large 
room.  It  was  heated  by  one  wood  stove.  Two  small  pieces 
of  painted  wood  used  for  a  blackboard  constituted  the  entire 
equipment.  The  school  had  not  opened  until  March  and 
was  being  taught  by  a  young  girl  with  a  third-grade  certifi- 
cate, teaching  for  the  first  time.  There  were  only  15  chil- 
dren enrolled,  as  compared  with  an  enrolment  last  year  of 
39,  and  not  a  child  over  10  years  of  age  was  in  attendance, 
although  there  was  no  other  school  within  reach. 

Not  only  are  the  buildings  unattractive  and  unsuitable, 
but  the  sanitary  conditions  are  a  menace  to  the  children's 
health.  Toilet  facilities  are  inadequate.  In  eight  schools 
there  was  no  toilet  whatever.  In  23  schools  there  was  but 
one  toilet,  and  in  five  instances  this  was  used  by  both  boys 
and  girls.  The  large  majority  are  constructed  without  any 
excavation  and  with  an  open  back,  over  75  being  of  this 
type.  In  some  of  the  new  ones  the  back  is  boarded  in.  Only 
13  were  constructed  with  a  pit  and  these  were  not  fly  tight. 
In  all  the  schools  visited,  only  two  had  toilets  which  could 
be  classed  as  sanitary.  One  was  a  flush  and  the  other  a 
chemical  toilet,  both  in  the  larger  schools.  Their  condition, 
on  the  whole,  was  abominable.  Entirely  aside  from  the  ques- 
tion of  sanitation,  the  inside  of  the  toilets  was  disgraceful ; 
32  were  classed  as  clean,  98  as  fair  and  55  as  filthy.  There 
is  no  regular  inspection  of  their  condition  by  either  health 
or  school  authorities — not  even  by  the  teacher.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  repair  they  are  little  better  than  from  the 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     121 

point  of  view  of  cleanliness;  in  many  cases  doors  were  off 
the  hinges,  holes  torn  in  the  sides,  and  in  some  instances  the 
buildings  were  in  pieces  on  the  ground.  In  one  school  both 
privies  were  over  a  creek  and  across  the  railroad  track — to 
reach  them,  the  children  often  had  to  crawl  under  freight 
cars. 

Lack  of  care  as  to  the  source  of  the  water  supply  is  an- 
other example  of  the  disregard  for  the  health  of  the  children 
which  characterizes  rural  schools.  Unprotected  springs  and 
even  creeks  are  used  in  a  number  of  schools  and  open  wells 
are  very  common.  In  more  than  half  the  schools  the  water 
is  not  on  the  school  grounds,  but  is  carried  from  a  neighbor- 
ing house ;  in  a  few  instances  there  is  no  water  within  one- 
half  mile  of  the  building.  In  several  cases  the  location  of 
the  water  supply  in  relation  to  the  toilets  was  dangerous  in 
the  extreme.  At  one  school  having  no  toilet  for  boys,  a 
nearby  thicket  was  used  and  the  drainage  was  direct  to  the 
place  from  which  the  drinking  water  was  taken  for  the 
school.  In  other  cases  the  toilets  were  on  a  hillside  at  the 
foot  of  which  was  the  well  used  by  the  school. 

Carelessness  is  also  shown  in  the  arrangements  for  keep- 
ing the  drinking  water  in  the  schoolroom.  Although  a  ma- 
jority of  the  schools  had  water  coolers,  in  only  69  were  they 
in  use.  In  78  water  was  kept  in  a  bucket,  from  which  the 
children  dipped  out  the  water;  in  24  the  children  went 
directly  to  the  pump  or  the  spring;  in  only  one  was  there 
a  fountain ;  in  1 1  there  was  no  water  at  the  school.  In  spite 
of  the  fact  that  common  drinking  cups  are  forbidden  by  law, 
in  about  one  third  of  the  schools  the  teachers  admitted  that 
children  were  still  using  a  common  drinking  cup  or  dipper ; 
in  other  schools  they  said  that  "family"  cups  or  individual 
paper  cups  made  by  the  children  were  supposed  to  be  used, 
but  many  added  that  the  children  passed  them  around  and 
were  not  careful. 

Indifference  to  the  first  rules  of  cleanliness  is  shown  also 
in  the  failure  of  the  school  to  provide  washing  facilities  for 
the  children,  although  practically  all  bring  their  lunch  and 


122  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

eat  it  at  the  school  house.  Eighty- four  schools  had  one 
basin  each  for  the  use  of  the  teacher  and  the  entire  school 
(few  appeared  to  be  used);  five  had  pails;  in  four  the 
teacher  said  the  children  went  to  the  pump ;  and  in  15  to  the 
creek.  In  75  there  was  no  provision  whatever.  Fewer  than 
20  schools  had  soap  or  towels,  and  in  most  of  these  there 
was  a  common  cake  of  soap  and  a  common  or  a  "family" 
towel.  Here  again  the  teacher  said  the  children  were  not 
"particular." 

Nor  are  the  most  simple  precautions  taken  to  protect  the 
children's  eyes.  Seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  schools,  in- 
cluding several  erected  during  the  last  few  years,  have 
cross-lighting.  One  teacher,  observing  the  investigator  note 
this  item,  remarked :  "Oh,  yes,  we  have  excellent  cross-light- 
ing in  this  school."  In  one  school,  although  the  lighting  had 
been  well  planned,  the  desks  had  been  so  fastened  that  the 
pupils  faced  the  windows.  In  six  schools  there  was  not  only 
cross-lighting  but  also  windows  in  the  front  of  the  room.  In 
another  case  school  was  being  conducted  in  a  building  origi- 
nally erected  as  a  moving-picture  house,  and  so  arranged 
that  there  were  seven  windows  on  the  right  side  and  two 
in  front ;  the  latter  were  not  covered  by  curtains  and  were 
directly  in  front  of  the  children.  In  spite  of  cross-lighting, 
only  78  schools  were  properly  equipped  with  shades ;  58  had 
none  whatever  and  in  56  others  they  were  in  very  poor  con- 
dition and  badly  arranged.  The  amount  of  window  space  is 
below  standard,  only  29  of  the  schools  having  as  much  as  20 
per  cent  of  the  floor  space.  The  lack  of  window  space  is 
doubly  serious  because,  true  to  the  old-fashioned  model,  the 
windows  almost  invariably  are  placed  in  the  middle  of  the 
wall,  without  any  consideration  of  the  seating  arrangements 
of  the  children. 

The  schools  are  heated  in  various  way — coal,  wood,  gas 
stoves  and  furnaces  all  being  used.  In  only  six  schools, 
however,  were  furnaces  installed.  In  spite  of  the  law  re- 
quiring that  stoves  be  jacketed,  only  three  stoves  had  this 
protection.  In  several  cases  coal  stoves  had  been  adjusted 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     123 

to  burn  gas,  the  intense  heat  had  cracked  the  base  of  the 
stove,  and  the  fumes  escaped  into  the  room,  making  it  almost 
unbearable.  Aside  from  the  fact  that  they  are  un jacketed 
and  poorly  placed  in  the  schoolroom,  their  condition,  with 
the  exception  of  the  gas  burning  coal  stoves,  was  on  the 
whole  satisfactory. 

EQUIPMENT 

With  regard  to  equipment  the  schools  show  the  same  lack 
of  modernity  and  practicality  that  characterizes  the  build- 
ings. Only  40  of  the  classrooms  were  supplied  with  single 
desks,  118  with  double,  34  with  both.  In  31  rooms  there  was 
but  one  size  of  seat;  in  40  others,  although  there  were  at 
least  two  sizes,  they  were  poorly  distributed,  the  lack  usually 
being  for  smaller  children.  In  a  few  instances  there  were 
not  enough  seats  of  any  kind  for  those  in  attendance  and 
children  were  sitting  two  on  single  and  three  on  double  seats. 

Frequently  even  the  necessaries  for  good  schoolroom  work 
were  lacking.  In  72  schools  there  was  not  a  single  map  and 
in  52  there  was  neither  map,  nor  globe,  nor  chart  of  any 
kind.  Seldom  could  any  one  furnish  a  ruler  or  yardstick 
to  measure  the  dimensions  of  the  room.  Only  17  schools  had 
even  a  trace  of  special  equipment  for  primary  work,  and  in 
all  but  one  of  these  schools  such  material  as  there  was  had 
been  furnished  by  the  teacher. 

There  is  no  equipment  for  hand  work  or  practical  work 
of  any  kind  such  as  cooking,  sewing,  manual  training  or 
agriculture.  The  teaching  of  the  last  is  required  but  it  is 
taught  by  text  book  only;  no  project  work  is  done.  In  two 
schools  the  teacher  had  made  an  effort  to  introduce  cooking, 
but  no  adequate  equipment  had  been  provided,  and  she  had 
only  the  top  of  the  heating  stove  to  use  for  this  purpose. 

Blackboards  on  the  whole  were  well  placed,  although  in 
10  schools  part,  at  least,  of  the  blackboard  space  was  be- 
tween the  windows.  The  condition  of  the  surface  was  usu- 
ally good.  In  29  cases,  however,  it  was  reported  as  very 
poor  and  in  32  as  only  fair. 


124  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

In  fewer  than  50  schools  were  there  good  pictures.  In 
many  there  were  none  and  in  others  they  were  tawdry  and 
unsuitable.  Magazine  prints,  advertisements,  calendars,  old 
posters,  etc.,  were  very  common  even  in  schools  having  good 
pictures  also.  In  a  few  districts,  however,  the  pictures  were 
of  excellent  type,  and  it  was  evident  that  a  campaign  had 
been  put  on  in  these  communities  to  secure  pictures  for 
every  schoolhouse. 

TEACHERS 

The  efficiency  of  the  school  depends  primarily  upon  the 
teacher.  Even  the  most  ramshackle  and  ill-equipped  hut  can 
be  made  alive  if  the  teacher  has  the  training  and  initiative 
to  make  the  best  of  it.  On  the  other  hand,  no  matter  how 
modern  and  well-equipped  a  school  building  may  be,  it  will 
be  an  absolute  failure  if  the  teacher  is  lacking  in  training 
and  personality. 

The  standards  for  teaching  in  West  Virginia  are  very 
low.  At  the  present  time  there  are  no  requirements  for 
teachers  other  than  the  eighteen-year  age  limit  and  the 
passing  of  the  state  examinations  in  the  usual  subjects.  Those 
who  pass  with  a  general  average  of  90  per  cent  and  no 
subject  below  75  are  granted  a  first-grade  certificate.  Those 
passing  with  a  general  average  of  80  per  cent  and  no  subject 
below  68  are  granted  a  second-grade  certificate  valid  for 
three  years,  and  those  passing  with  a  general  average  of  70 
per  cent  and  no  subject  below  60  are  granted  a  third-grade 
certificate,  valid  for  one  year.  A  third-grade  certificate  can- 
not be  issued  more  than  twice  to  the  same  person.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  certificates  just  mentioned,  there  are,  of  course, 
the  usual  certificates  granted  to  graduates  of  normal  schools 
and  other  approved  institutions. 

Even  these  low  standards  are  rendered  ineffectual  by 
provision  for  emergency  certificates  which  may  be  granted 
to  any  one  by  the  State  Superintendent  of  Schools,  regard- 
less of  qualifications.  This  form  has  been  used  in  some 
cases  to  secure  competent  teachers  whose  certificates  had 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     125 

expired,  who  had  failed  to  take  an  examination,  or  for  some 
other  reason  could  not  qualify.  But  when  there  were  no 
certificated  teachers  available  it  has  been  granted  to  ex- 
tremely inefficient  teachers  who  could  not  pass  the  examina- 
tions. It  is  an  open  question  whether  it  is  not  better  to  allow 
the  school  to  remain  closed  all  year  rather  than  to  be  con- 
ducted by  a  teacher  of  this  type.  Already  legislation  has 
been  passed  to  raise  the  requirements,  and  beginning  with 
1922  applicants  for  first-grade  certificates  must  have  had  at 
least  one  year  of  high-school  work  and  nine  weeks'  study  of 
professional  subjects.  This  requirement  is  gradually  to  be 
increased  until  in  1924  three  years  of  high  school  work  and 
27  weeks'  study  of  professional  subjects  will  be  demanded. 
There  are  no  changes,  however,  in  the  requirements  for  cer- 
tificates of  second  and  third  grade,  or  in  the  provision  for 
the  issuance  of  emergency  certificates. 

In  the  schools  visited  there  were  employed  200  teachers, 
125  of  whom  were  women  and  75  men.  A  study  of  the 
preparation  and  experience  of  these  teachers  revealed  on  the 
whole  a  total  absence  of  the  standards  which  we  have  come 
to  expect  for  our  public  schools.  Only  one-half  held  first- 
grade  certificates.  In  view  of  the  comparatively  low  stand- 
ards, even  for  first-grade  certificates,  this  is  serious.  About 
one-third  had  only  an  elementary  school  education,  usually 
in  one-room  country  schools;  and  about  one-fourth  had  in 
addition  to  this  only  a  little  summer  institute  work.  Con- 
siderably less  than  one-third  had  the  equivalent  of  a  high- 
school  course,  and  less  than  a  third  had  any  normal  training 
whatever. 

The  figures  compiled  by  the  State  Department  in  their 
last  biennial  report  are  even  more  discouraging.  Their  esti- 
mate of  the  training  of  the  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools 
for  the  year  1919-20  is  as  follows : 

1.  College  graduates 179         1.7  per  cent 

2.  Standard    normal    graduates    and    Junior 

college 1,722        16.1 

3.  High-school  graduates   and   short  normal 

course  1,672        15.6 


126  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

4.  Two  years  of  high-school  training 1,145        I0-7  per 

5.  Some  high-school   training   but   less   than 

two  years  1,235        H-5 

6.  ELEMENTARY   SCHOOL   EDUCA- 

TION ONLY 4,755       444 

Only  a  few  more  than  half  have  had  any  normal  school, 
high-school,  or  summer  school  training  whatever.  In  the 
rural  schools,  the  percentage  is  even  less,  for  the  large  ma- 
jority of  trained  teachers  are  in  or  near  towns  and  cities; 
few  are  in  the  distinctly  rural  schools.  As  the  State  Depart- 
ment puts  it:  the  trained  teachers  "do  not  get  off  the  hard 
roads." 

A  man  teacher,  when  asked  about  his  "preparation,"  said 
that  he  "attended  two  terms,  in  all  eight  months,  of  free 
school  in  ole  Virginny  over  20  years  ago."  He  has  not  been 
teaching  for  twenty  years  but  when  visited  was  just  begin- 
ning a  school  term  at  a  salary  of  $125  a  month. 

In  another  school  the  teacher  said :  "I  never  went  a  day 
to  school  in  my  life  except  at  this  school."  On  finishing  the 
eighth  grade  she  began  to  teach  the  same  school  where  she 
had  been  a  pupil,  and  has  been  teaching  for  17  years.  She 
now  has  two  children  in  the  same  school. 

The  preparation  of  another  teacher  had  been  "eight  years 
in  a  rural  school  and  a  six-week  term  of  country  school 
taught  by  a  teacher  to  'a  bunch  of  us/  " 

In  another  school  was  a  young  girl  who  had  not  completed 
the  eighth  grade.  She  had  failed  in  the  examinations,  but 
nevertheless  had  been  allowed  to  take  the  school  which  the 
board  had  planned  to  give  her.  In  this  same  county  another 
girl  finished  the  eighth  grade  in  December,  and  the  first  week 
in  January  began  to  teach  in  a  neighboring  school. 

That  the  State  Department  recognizes  the  seriousness  of 
this  situation  is  hopeful.  In  its  last  biennial  report  it  writes : 

"The  table  showing  the  supply  of  trained  teachers  in  the 
state  is  eloquent  in  explaining  our  rank  among  the  states. 
We  can  hardly  hope  to  have  schools  without  teachers.  As 
things  are,  the  blind  are  leading  the  blind  so  that  we  cannot 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     127 

help  falling  into  the  educational  ditch.  Almost  one  half  of 
our  teachers  are  untrained.  They  have  no  education  beyond 
eighth  grade  in  a  country  school  taught  by  some  one  who 
had  an  eighth  grade  education  in  a  country  school.  The 
vicious  circle  is  complete.  There  is  no  vision  and  our 
people  perish." 

This  shortage  of  teachers  has  existed  all  over  the  country, 
but  West  Virginia  has  been  especially  hard  hit  because  of 
the  exceptionally  low  salaries  paid  until  this  year.  In  the 
schools  studied,  the  median  fell  between  $80  and  $90.  Thirty 
per  cent,  however,  were  receiving  less  than  $70.  Until  this 
year  the  minimum  salaries  were  fixed  by  law  at  $75,  $60  and 
$45  for  teachers  holding  first-grade,  second-grade  and  third- 
grade  certificates,  respectively.  With  a  6^-month  term, 
even  a  $75  a  month  salary  means  a  small  annual  income. 
Districts  were  permitted  to  raise  this  rate,  provided  they 
were  not  receiving  state  aid,  but  not  all  were  able  to  do  so. 

The  law  was  amended  at  the  last  session  of  the  legisla- 
ture, and  a  new  scale  adopted,  as  follows :  For  the  first  year 
of  teaching  the  rate  varies  from  $50  for  teachers  with  third- 
grade  certificates  to  $no  for  teachers  having  completed  a 
college  course.  Provision  is  made  for  a  regular  rate  of 
increase  depending  upon  the  number  of  years  of  service. 
Higher  rates  may  be  allowed  to  teachers  of  one-room 
schools;  and  districts  not  receiving  state  aid  may  increase 
the  rates,  provided  that  the  salaries  are  uniform  throughout 
the  district  for  teachers  with  the  same  credentials  and  ex- 
perience, and  provided  that  the  difference  in  basic  salaries 
depending  upon  training  is  maintained.  Although  an  im- 
provement, this  is  still  inadequate  and  will  not  secure  teach- 
ers with  even  the  minimum  of  professional  training  which 
should  be  required  of  those  employed  in  our  public  schools. 

It  is  difficult  to  raise  the  teaching  profession  when  the 
teacher  shortage  is  so  acute  that  the  tendency  is  to  ignore 
standards  already  existing.  Yet  before  the  school  can  press 
legitimately  its  demand  for  the  attendance  of  children  it  is 
essential  to  do  so.  An  increase  in  salary  alone  will  not 


128  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

secure  trained  teachers.  The  exodus  from  the  teaching  pro- 
fession has  been  due  in  part  only  to  low  salaries.  Unpleasant 
living  conditions,  especially  in  rural  sections,  lack  of  social 
recognition,  and  above  all  opportunities  for  women  in  new 
lines  of  work  have  also  had  their  effect.  Teaching  now  has 
to  compete  with  other  professions  and  even  though  the  sal- 
ary scale  is  raised,  it  will  be  many  years  before  the  supply 
of  teachers  is  great  enough  to  permit  of  much  selection. 
The  untrained  teacher  will  still  be  an  applicant,  and  due 
partly  to  teacher  shortage  and  partly  to  the  political  control 
of  appointments  in  many  communities,  she  will  be  employed 
unless  definite  minimum  requirements  are  made  and  en- 
forced. Those  to  be  adopted  in  West  Virginia  beginning  in 
1922  are  a  step  in  the  right  direction  but  they  are  still  ex- 
tremely low. 

Not  only  are  the  teachers  untrained,  but  they  are  on  the 
whole  inexperienced.  One-fourth  of  all  those  teaching  in 
the  schools  visited  were  teaching  for  the  first  time,  and  an- 
other fourth  had  been  teaching  less  than  three  years.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  is  the  opposite  extreme,  and  several 
teachers  had  been  in  the  work  for  more  than  30  years — with 
no  further  education  than  the  "grade  school,"  and  to  all 
appearances  no  change  in  method  since  their  own  grade 
school  days.  One  woman  began  to  teach  45  years  ago  and 
has  taught  steadily  for  40  years.  All  of  her  teaching  has 
been  in  one-room  rural  schools  and  in  all  these  years  she 
has  never  taken  any  professional  training.  She  is  totally 
lacking  in  initiative  and  originality.  Such  teachers  are  not 
stimulating  and  their  effect  on  the  children  is  no  less  disas- 
trous than  that  of  the  young,  inexperienced,  ambitionless  girl. 

It  is  also  significant  that  60  per  cent  of  the  teachers  were 
living  in  their  own  homes.  Utilization  of  local  talent  to 
such  an  extent  generally  indicates  appointments  due  not  to 
merit  but  to  either  political  influence  or  inability  to  secure 
trained  teachers  from  the  outside. 

That  the  present  teachers  are  unable  to  cope  with  the 
problem  of  the  rural  schools  or  even  to  understand  it  is 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     129 

evidenced  in  the  lack  of  responsibility  which  they  feel  for 
their  school  work.  Frequently  they  leave  the  school  in  the 
middle  of  the  term  for  another  school,  for  other  kinds  of 
work,  or  merely  because  they  "get  lonesome" ;  28  of  the 
schools  visited  had  had  more  than  one  teacher  during  the 
term ;  and  two  schools  had  had  three  teachers.  In  16  cases 
the  school  had  been  closed  for  periods  varying  from  one 
week  to  several  months  before  the  board  had  been  able  to 
secure  another  teacher. 

In  a  certain  school  the  teacher  left  last  fall  and  began 
work  with  a  carpenter  without  even  notifying  the  district 
supervisor  or  county  superintendent.  After  the  school  had 
been  closed  three  days  one  of  the  patrons  telephoned  to  the 
county  superintendent. 

In  a  two-room  school  the  upper  grades  had  only  5  months 
of  school,  although  the  lower  had  6y2,  because  the  teacher  of 
the  upper  grades  "quit  a  month  and  a  half  ago,  and  there 
had  been  no  school  since." 

Teachers  do  not  hesitate  to  take  a  day  or  two  off  and 
leave  the  school  in  charge  of  a  substitute.  In  three  schools 
visited  the  teacher  had  "gone  to  town"  on  the  day  the  school 
was  visited.  In  one  case  a  fourteen-year-old  girl,  herself 
a  pupil  in  a  neighboring  school,  was  teaching;  the  teacher's 
sister,  a  young  girl'who  had  never  taught,  was  in  charge  of 
the  second;  the  third  was  a  two-room  school  and  a  pupil 
from  the  eighth  grade  took  the  lower  classes.  In  each  case 
the  visit  to  town  was  for  the  purpose  of  shopping. 

In  another  school  the  teacher  was  drawn  for  jury  duty. 
Although  exempt  by  law  he  preferred  not  to  claim  exemp- 
tion, for,  as  the  county  superintendent  explained,  "they  all 
like  to  come  down  to  the  county  seat."  His  brother,  a  farm 
boy  totally  unqualified  for  teaching,  took  the  school  for  two 
weeks  during  his  absence. 

In  a  certain  county  is  a  school  which,  though  it  had 
opened  at  the  regular  time,  had  no  teacher  for  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades  until  Christmas.  Consequently  the  chil- 
dren had  a  short  term.  For  this  situation  the  teacher  was 
responsible.  Four  years  ago  this  district  had  an  enumera- 
tion of  about  50  and  was  made  a  graded  sub-district  with  a 


130  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

two-teacher  school.  The  enumeration  gradually  dwindled 
until  this  year  one  teacher  could  handle  easily  the  entire 
school.  The  present  teacher,  however,  had  contracted  to 
teach  up  to  and  including  the  sixth  grade,  and  sent  home 
the  seventh  and  eighth  grade  pupils  who  came  in  the  fall. 
They  had  no  schooling  until  the  last  week  in  December, 
when  a  second  teacher  was  employed.  People  in  the  com- 
munity stated  that  the  trouble  was  purely  local  politics ;  the 
teacher's  father  had  determined  that  she  should  have  a 
school,  and  although  she  had  failed  to  pass  the  eighth 
grade,  succeeded  in  getting  her  a  certificate.  The  opposi- 
tion to  her  appointment  merely  increased  her  determination 
not  to  include  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  (which  she 
probably  did  not  know  enough  to  teach). 

WORK   AND  ACTIVITIES   OF  THE  SCHOOL 

Not  only  are  the  buildings  unsuitable,  the  necessary  equip- 
ment lacking,  and  the  teachers  untrained,  but  the  spirit  of 
the  rural  school  is  dead.  The  old-fashioned  methods  of  in- 
struction, the  conventional  curriculum  unadapted  to  rural 
life,  and  the  absence  of  all  social  and  recreational  activities 
provide  nothing  to  stimulate  the  child,  to  awaken  his  ambi- 
tion or  call  forth  any  affection  or  loyalty  for  his  school. 

The  lack  of  equipment  for  ordinary  schoojroom  work,  as 
well  as  for  practical  work  such  as  cooking,  sewing,  manual- 
training,  agriculture,  etc.,  has  already  been  discussed.  More 
serious  than  the  actual  lack  of  equipment  is  the  fact  that 
few  teachers  feel  this  lack.  The  curriculum  follows  the  old 
traditional  lines  and  the  teachers  are  content  with  it.  As 
one  said :  "No,  we  don't  have  no  frills  in  this  school."  Those 
concerned  with  rural  schools  must  be  made  to  realize  not 
only  the  practical  value  of  "frills"  but  that,  given  a  good 
teacher,  on  their  existence  depends  the  interest  of  the  chil- 
dren and  therefore  the  life  of  the  school. 

The  teachers  do  not  know  how  to  utilize  the  educational 
opportunities  which  the  country  affords,  and  fail  to  inspire 
the  children  with  any  knowledge  or  appreciation  of  the  life 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     131 

about  them.  The  teacher  who  was  absent  from  the  school 
the  afternoon  of  our  visit  because  she  had  taken  all  the  chil- 
dren on  a  "hike"  to  study  birds  was  a  refreshing  exception — 
but  there  are  few  like  her. 

Music,  which  can  be  made  one  of  the  most  attractive  fea- 
tures of  the  school,  is  also  neglected.  Over  70  per  cent  of 
the  schools  had  no  musical  instruments  whatever ;  in  the  38 
schools  with  some  provision  for  music  there  were  22  organs, 
6  pianos  and  17  victrolas.  In  several  cases  the  children  said 
the  organs  were  never  used,  except  on  Sundays  when  church 
was  held  in  the  building. 

Little  effort  is  made,  through  school  libraries,  to  interest 
the  children  in  reading;  57  schools  had  no  library  whatever; 
45  had  fewer  than  50  books;  less  than  one-quarter  of  the 
schools  had  as  many  as  100  volumes.  In  many  cases  the 
books  were  not  well  suited  or  well  distributed  for  the  dif- 
ferent grades,  and  in  several  no  use  was  made  of  the  library. 

Provision  for  play  and  wholesome  recreation  is  seldom 
considered  a  function  of  the  school.  Only  half  a  dozen 
schools  had  even  a  semblance  of  playground  equipment, 
these  being  the  larger  schools  with  ball  grounds,  basket-ball 
equipment,  in  one  or  two  cases  a  small  amount  of  apparatus 
for  the  smaller  children,  and  in  one  case  a  tennis  court  in 
contemplation.  In  no  school  was  there  organized  play,  and 
the  teachers  showed  little  aptitude  for  such  work.  At 
recess  time  the  children  played  around  among  themselves 
in  the  school  yard  or  more  likely  in  adjoining  fields.  In  one 
school  there  was  no  play-ground  space  near  the  school,  and 
the  youngsters  played  in  the  road  and  along  the  banks  of  the 
creek  for  a  distance  of  about  20  feet. 

About  one  half  of  the  schools  have  had  no  entertainments 
or  social  gatherings  of  any  kind  in  the  schoolhouse  during 
the  past  year;  one- fourth  had  one  entertainment  each,  and 
the  remainder  had  two  or  three.  In  a  few  schools  there  is 
organized  a  literary  club  which  meets  once  a  week,  usually 
Friday  afternoon,  at  the  end  of  the  school  day,  and  to  these 
meetings  the  community  is  invited.  Entertainments,  how- 


132  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ever,  are  usually  in  the  form  of  box-suppers  or  pie  sociables 
and  their  purpose  is  not  primarily  social,  but  financial,  i.  e., 
to  raise  money  for  improving  the  school  building.  In  two 
instances  where  normal  graduates  were  teaching,  the  school 
was  attempting  to  put  on  a  play.  There  were  a  few  other 
instances  of  purely  social  gatherings  including  community 
spelling-bees,  but  on  the  whole,  the  teachers  have  not  the 
interest  or  originality  to  develop  anything  outside  of  the 
usual  schoolroom  work. 

Too  often  they  do  not  know  even  the  fundamentals  of 
teaching.  In  one  school  the  teacher  conducted  a  geography 
class  as  follows: 

Teacher  reading  from  the  book:  "Brazil  is  a  country  in 
South  America."  Looking  up,  "Isn't  it?"  and  the  children 
would  nod  their  heads :  "Yes."  Reading :  "Coffee  is  one  of 
the  chief  exports  of  Brazil.  Isn't  it?"  Again  the  children 
would  nod  their  heads.  This  routine  was  followed  through- 
out the  recitation. 

In  another  school  the  teacher  called  the  class  in  physiology 
and  opened  the  lesson  by  saying  to  the  children:  "S'posin' 
you  tell  me  all  you  know  'bout  the  nervous  system,  and  I'll 
sit  here  and  listen  at  ye." 

In  a  third  school  the  class  was  "learnin"  South  America, 
and  Chile  was  pronounced  by  the  teacher  as  a  word  of  one 
syllable  with  a  long  i ! 

With  such  conditions  in  the  schools,  one  is  tempted  not  to 
blame  children  for  non-attendance ;  it  may  well  be  that  it  is 
better  for  them  not  to  attend  school  than  to  go  to  schools 
held  in  unattractive  and  unsanitary  buildings,  under  the 
direction  of  untrained  teachers,  who  give  them  instruction 
of  an  out-of-date,  unpractical  and  uninteresting  nature. 

The  activities  of  the  Four-H  clubs  being  developed  under 
the  Extension  Division  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  are  in 
part  making  up  for  the  failure  of  the  rural  schools,  but 
relatively  a  very  small  number  of  children  are  now  reached 
by  them.  (See  chapter  on  "Child  Labor  on  Farms.")  The 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     133 

school  cannot  escape  its  responsibility  as  the  primary  agency 
for  the  education  of  the  rural  child. 


RURAL   SCHOOL   RE-ORGANIZATION 

The  problem  of  the  rural  school  has  been  well  summarized 
by  Mrs.  L.  E.  McClung,  State  President  of  Farm  Women's 
Clubs  of  West  Virginia.  Coming  from  one  who  has  lived  all 
her  life  in  the  country  and  knows  rural  conditions,  it  is 
especially  significant.  She  writes: 

"How  signally  the  present  system  of  schools  is  failing 
can  only  be  appreciated  by  those  living  in  the  region  of  these 
teeming  camps  and  hills  and  coming  into  actual  contact  with 
these  failures. 

"Any  well-meant  attempt  to  improve  the  country  schools 
as  now  organized  is  useless.  The  whole  system  will  have 
to  be  re-organized,  it  cannot  be  patched  up.  The  proposal 
to  raise  the  standard  of  teaching,  desirable  as  this  is,  will 
not  do  it." 

And,  it  might  be  added,  any  attempt  to  improve  materially 
attendance  in  the  country  schools  as  now  organized  is  like- 
wise useless,  for  no  amount  of  legislation  can  force  these 
people  against  their  convictions.  Until  the  schools  are  so 
changed  that  the  parents  are  convinced  of  their  value,  at- 
tendance will  continue  to  be  low. 

To  make  possible  this  reorganization  certain  fundamental 
changes  are  necessary.  First  in  importance  is  the  abolition 
of  the  one-room  district  schools  and  the  substitution  of 
modern  consolidated  schools  serving  as  large  an  area  as  the 
physical  conditions  of  the  community  permit.  The  advan- 
tages of  consolidation  are  too  well  known  to  require  elabora- 
tion. It  makes  possible  suitable  school  buildings  with  mod- 
ern lighting,  heating  and  plumbing;  better  equipment;  the 
introduction  of  practical  work  and  industrial  courses ;  larger 
libraries ;  better  teachers ;  fewer  recitations  per  teacher,  mak- 
ing possible  longer  recitations  and  therefore  more  actual 
teaching  per  pupil;  -closer  supervision;  community  club- 


134  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

rooms  and  auditoriums ;  more  school  activities,  and  a  gener- 
ally better  school  spirit.  Wherever  consolidation  has  been 
tried  it  has  vindicated  itself,  and  proved  that  it  does  bring 
these  advantages. 

So  far,  consolidation  has  not  gained  much  of  a  foothold 
in  West  Virginia.  Among  the  schools  visited  only  six  could 
be  considered  consolidated.  This  was  due,  in  part,  to  the  fact 
that  some  counties  were  visited  late  in  the  season  when  the 
regular  term  was  over,  and  the  consolidated  schools,  which 
have  no  trouble  in  securing  teachers  and  in  opening  on  time, 
had  closed;  but  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  most  of  the  con- 
solidation in  West  Virginia  has  been  concentrated  around 
towns  and  villages. 

In  the  state  as  a  whole  there  are  few  consolidated  schools. 
In  1920  there  were  only  145  and  of  these  only  99  were  rural. 
There  were  five  counties  not  having  a  single  consolidated 
rural  school. 

The  six  consolidated  schools  visited  were  distinctly 
superior  to  the  ordinary  schools  both  as  to  the  school  plant 
and  as  to  the  type  of  teacher  employed.  Two  schools  in 
Pocahontas  County,  which,  though  in  rural  communities, 
combined  the  elementary  and  the  high-school  grades  and 
were  therefore  large  enough  to  realize  all  the  benefits  of 
consolidation,  were  especially  good.  They  were  well  located ; 
had  playgrounds  and  athletic  equipment  for  both  boys  and 
girls;  the  buildings  were  modern  and  well  equipped;  the 
teachers  well-trained  and  experienced;  and  for  the  high- 
school  grades  there  was  industrial  work  including  a  Smith- 
Hughes  agricultural  course.  Attendance  in  these  schools 
reflected  the  interest  of  the  children,  the  percentage  of  at- 
tendance among  those  enrolled  being  over  90  for  both 
schools. 

There  are,  of  course,  certain  obstacles  in  the  way  of  con- 
solidation. Aside  from  the  question  of  cost,  which  in  view 
of  the  tremendous  educational  advantages  should  not  be  a 
deterrent,  the  chief  difficulty  in  West  Virginia  is  transpor- 
tation. In  only  30  schools  in  the  state  is  any  provision  made 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     135 

for  getting  the  children  to  and  from  the  school.  It  is  not 
fair,  however,  to  take  away  the  little  district  school,  even 
for  a  large  modern  school,  if  it  is  not  made  possible  for  the 
children  of  the  entire  area  to  attend.  In  many  localities  the 
roads  are  such  that  transportation  would  be  impossible  at 
certain  seasons  of  the  year,  regardless  of  the  kind  of  con- 
veyance used.  With  the  better  road  program  already 
launched,  however,  it  should  be  increasingly  practicable. 

A  second  drawback  is  the  antagonism  of  the  parents  to 
the  idea.  At  best  they  are  lukewarm ;  in  some  cases  they  are 
opposed  because  of  the  increased  cost ;  in  some  cases,  because 
they  are  unwilling  for  the  children  to  go  such  a  distance. 
Frequently  they  cannot  come  to  an  agreement  as  to  the  loca- 
tion of  the  new  school.  One  superintendent  stated  that  many 
more  consolidations  would  have  been  made  in  his  county  if 
the  parents  had  been  able  to  reach  an  agreement  as  to  the 
sites.  By  education,  demonstration,  and  persuasion  the 
hostility  of  the  parents  can  be  overcome;  it  has  been  over- 
come in  many  instances  not  only  in  West  Virginia  but  in  the 
entire  country.  Consolidation  has  been  a  controversial  mat- 
ter, but  once  adopted  and  the  co-operation  of  the  parents 
secured,  it  has  never  been  abandoned. 

Consolidation  is  the  hope  of  the  rural  schools  and  must 
precede  or  accompany  every  effort  to  raise  their  standards. 
West  Virginia  has  done  less  than  most  states ;  even  with  road 
conditions  as  they  are  she  can  go  much  further.  Large 
graded  schools  will  not  be  feasible  in  the  mountains  for  many 
years  to  come,  if  ever,  but  consolidated  schools  of  the  two- 
and  three-room  type  can  be  adopted  very  generally.  In  all 
but  four  of  the  17  counties  visited  a  certain  amount  of  con- 
solidation would  be  possible  at  the  present  time,  and  in  a 
few  counties  it  could  be  made  almost  universal.  The  sav- 
ing in  teachers'  salaries  by  the  abolition  of  one-room  schools 
having  an  enrolment  of  only  10  or  15  will  go  far  towards 
meeting  the  increased  maintainance  cost  of  the  consolidated 
school. 

The  second  step  in  the  reorganization  of  the  rural  schools 


136  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

is  administrative.  The  present  district  system  must  gradu- 
ally be  eliminated  and  the  county  made  the  unit  for  adminis- 
tration. The  schools  should  be  under  a  county  board  of 
education,  composed  of  one  member  elected  from  each  dis- 
trict, and  should  be  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  a 
county  superintendent  appointed  by  the  county  board  of 
education.  This  officer  should  be  a  full-time  one ;  adequate 
clerical  and  supervisory  assistance  should  be  provided  and 
the  salary  should  be  sufficient  to  enable  men  of  training  and 
vision  to  fill  the  position. 

The  enforcement  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law  should 
also  be  under  county  direction.  Not  only  is  the  law  differently 
interpreted  and  enforced  with  widely  varying  degrees  of 
severity  in  neighboring  communities,  but  local  enforcement 
never  has  been  and  never  can  be  satisfactory.  In  many  cases 
the  attendance  officer,  even  though  he  may  have  had  the 
necessary  social  training,  is  bound  to  incur  the  hostility  of 
the  parents.  No  one  is  willing  to  "get  in  wrong"  with  his 
neighbors  and  local  officers  will  not  press  a  case.  There 
should  be  a  full  time  county  attendance  officer  whose  duties 
should  include  (i)  supervision  of  the  taking  of  the  school 
census  by  the  teachers,  (2)  granting  of  work  permits,  (3) 
enforcement  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law. 

The  substitution  of  the  county  as  the  unit  of  administra- 
tion will  necessitate,  of  course,  making  the  county  the  unit 
of  taxation  for  school  purposes.  This  is  not  a  difficulty; 
on  the  contrary  it  is  in  itself  desirable.  Not  only  is  the 
county  already  the  taxation  unit  for  other  purposes,  but  it 
will  make  possible  the  equalization  of  educational  conditions. 
At  the  present  time  a  poor  district  in  spite  of  a  maximum  tax 
levy  not  only  has  insufficient  funds  for  proper  buildings  and 
equipment,  but  is  frequently  forced  to  maintain  a  shorter 
term  than  neighboring  districts  and  is  also  at  a  distinct  dis- 
advantage in  securing  teachers.  The  competition  for  teach- 
ers is  keen ;  and  the  districts  paying  the  highest  salaries  and 
having  the  longest  terms  secure  the  best.  Many,  even  of 
those  who  live  at  home,  drive  several  miles  back  and  forth 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     137 

to  another  district,  rather  than  teach  in  their  own  district 
where  conditions  are  less  favorable.  This  disadvantage  is 
doubly  felt  because,  in  order  to  secure  state  aid,  a  district 
cannot  pay  more  than  the  minimum  salary  provided  by  law. 
With  the  county  as  the  unit,  the  length  of  term  and  salary 
schedule  would  be  uniform  for  all  schools. 

A  third  need  of  the  rural  schools  is  an  increase  in  school 
funds.  The  last  legislature  (1921)  enacted  important  legis- 
lation along  this  line.  State  aid  is  to  be  increased  by  a 
million  dollars  and  is  to  be  given  not  only  as  formerly  to 
districts  levying  the  maximum  salary  tax  and  yet  unable  to 
pay  the  minimum  salary  for  the  minimum  term  required 
by  law,  but  to  each  one-room  and  rural  consolidated  school 
meeting  certain  standards  fixed  by  the  state  board  of  educa- 
tion ;  and  also  to  districts  increasing  the  school  levy  by  elec- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  raising  teachers'  salaries  and  employ- 
ing district  supervisors.  This  apportionment  of  state  school 
funds  is  on  the  right  basis,  for  it  recognizes  first,  the  prin- 
ciple that  educational  conditions  in  the  state  should  be  equal- 
ized and  to  this  end  poor  districts  aided,  and  secondly,  it 
encourages  local  effort  both  as  to  taxation  and  as  to  the 
establishment  of  standard  schools.  The  requirement,  how- 
ever, that  districts  receiving  state  aid  in  order  to  bring  the 
term  up  to  the  minimum  required  by  law  must  pay  the  mini- 
mum salaries,  is  unfair  because  of  the  difficulty  of  securing 
teachers  on  this  salary.  A  few  instances  were  found  of 
districts  which  could  have  qualified  for  state  aid  but  did 
not  apply,  because  they  realized  that  if  they  did  so  and  paid 
the  minimum  salaries  while  neighboring  districts  were 
paying  more,  they  would  be  unable  to  secure  teachers  for 
their  schools.  In  a  few  cases  they  shortened  the  term  in 
preference.  Those  districts  which  did  receive  state  aid  and 
paid  minimum  salaries  were  the  ones  in  which  some  schools 
opened  late  and  others  were  closed  all  year  because  no  one 
could  be  found  to  teach  them.  To  some  extent  the  same  diffi- 
culty exists  among  counties.  Last  year  one  county  having 
on  hand  some  unexpended  school  money  raised  its  salaries, 


138  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

and  all  the  trained  teachers  from  the  neighboring  county 
migrated  there.  This  year  that  surplus  was  used  up;  the 
county  returned  to  its  former  salary  schedule  and  the  teach- 
ers flocked  back  to  their  home  county.  It  would  be  prefer- 
able to  give  state  aid  to  districts  (or  counties,  when  made 
the  unit)  paying  not  more  than  a  maximum  salary,  rather 
than  the  minimum  stated  in  the  law. 

Aside  from  state  funds,  which  represent  less  than  six  per 
cent  of  the  total  expenditure  for  public  schools  in  the  state, 
even  including  state  administrative  expenses,  support  is 
secured  for  the  schools  by  local  taxation.  According  to  the 
new  levy  law  passed  this  year,  districts  may  levy  an  elemen- 
tary maintenance  fund  up  to  15  cents,  an  elementary  teach- 
ers' fund  up  to  40  cents,  an  unlimited  levy  for  high-school 
teachers'  fund,  an  unlimited  levy  for  high  school  mainte- 
nance fund,  and  a  levy  for  new  building  and  improvement 
fund  up  to  20  cents  which  may  be  increased  to  40  cents  with 
the  approval  of  the  state  superintendent  of  schools  and  the 
state  tax  commissioner. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  exactly  what  a  state  should  ex- 
pend for  education.  One  computation  sometimes  used  is 
based  on  the  following :  ( I )  one  teacher  should  be  provided 
for  every  35  pupils,  (2)  the  school  term  should  be  nine 
months,  (3)  the  average  minimum  salary  for  teachers  should 
be  $100  a  month  (i.  e.,  $900  a  year),  (4)  the  expenditures  for 
teachers'  salaries  throughout  the  country  being  now  57.2  per 
cent  of  the  total  expenditure  for  schools,  $8,793,000  is 
needed  in  West  Virginia  for  teachers'  salaries  and  the  total 
school  expenditure  should  be  $15,372,377 — an  increase  over 
last  year's  expenditure  ($11,291,593.23)  of  36  per  cent. 

One  interesting  fact  becomes  evident  in  making  this  com- 
putation :  the  number  of  teachers  needed  on  the  basis  of  one 
to  every  35  pupils  is  less  than  the  number  actually  employed 
in  West  Virginia  at  the  present  time !  This  is  due,  of  course, 
to  the  innumerable  small  rural  schools  with  enrolments  of 
from  10  to  15  or  20.  This  in  itself  is  a  tremendous  item  of 
waste  that  can  be  eliminated  and  the  money  used  to  secure 
better  teachers  for  the  remaining  schools. 


RURAL  SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE     139 

Whether  districts  will  take  advantage  of  this  new  law  and 
raise  their  tax  levies,  and  whether  the  funds  thus  raised 
together  with  the  increase  in  state  aid  will  increase  school 
revenue  sufficiently,  remains  to  be  seen. 

SUMMARY 

Poor  school  attendance  is  undoubtedly  the  basic  explana- 
tion of  the  high  illiteracy  rate  among  our  American  born 
rural  population.  It  follows  that,  if  we  are  to  have  an  edu- 
cated nation,  the  children  of  the  nation  must  attend  school. 
Attendance,  however,  is  but  the  other  side  of  the  general 
rural  school  problem.  Our  primary  duty  to  rural  children 
is  to  provide  for  them  good  schools  which  really  educate — 
good  from  the  point  of  view  of  grounds,  building,  equip- 
ment, teaching  and  community  spirit.  Our  second  duty  is 
to  keep  these  schools  in  session  for  a  period  of  time  sufficient 
to  enable  them  to  fulfill  their  function.  When  these  two 
things  have  been  accomplished,  the  attendance  problem  prob- 
ably will  have  vanished  and  the  element  of  compulsion  in 
school  attendance  need  exist  only  for  exceptional  cases. 


CHAPTER  IV 

RURAL  RECREATION 
Raymond  G.  Fuller 

ONLY  children  belong  to  the  Kingdom  of  Childhood,  and 
the  Kingdom  of  Childhood  belongs  to  all  children. 

The  democracy  of  this  kingdom  is  perfect.  Within,  every 
child  is  king  by  virtue  of  his  childhood,  and  the  highest 
privilege  of  grown-ups  in  the  world  at  large,  entering  into 
the  kingdom  as  far  as  remembrance  and  the  child  in  them- 
selves make  it  possible,  is  to  manifest  respect  and  reverence 
for  those  who,  being  children,  are  the  rulers  of  the  race, 
the  priests  of  the  past,  and  the  prophets  of  the  future — 
kings  unconscious  of  their  part  in  destiny,  but  conscious  of 
life,  life  in  abundance — just  children.  And  the  privilege  of 
grown-ups  is,  further,  to  preserve  the  kingdom,  and  protect 
it  from  invasion,  and  to  see  that  none  of  its  inheritors  is 
disinherited  but  that  all  children  everywhere  shall  be  robed 
in  the  royal  purple. 

How  many  children  in  country  places  live  in  this  King- 
dom of  Childhood?  Their  number  we  cannot  know,  try  as 
we  may,  except  as  we  know  that  they  are  few  or  they  are 
many.  A  census  of  the  Kingdom  of  Childhood  is  a  contra- 
diction in  terms,  for  the  kingdom  is  qualitative  not  quanti- 
tative, a  spiritual  kingdom  consisting  not  of  boys  and  girls 
but  of  the  joy  and  fulness  of  childhood  itself.  We  know  that 
the  life  of  play  is  characteristic  of  this  kingdom,  for  it  is  in 
their  play  that  children  are  most  completely  and  most  ex- 
actly children.  Childhood  is  playtime  when  Nature  has  her 
way,  and  only  Man  in  his  ignorance  or  his  selfishness  would 
have  it  otherwise,  and  the  laws  of  Nature  are  the  laws  of 
the  kingdom. 

140 


RURAL  RECREATION  141 

So  the  children  who  play  much  belong  to  the  Kingdom  of 
Childhood  and  the  Kingdom  of  Childhood  belongs  to  the 
children  who  play  little  and  ought  to  play  more. 


THE   MEANING   OF   PLAY 

Childhood  is  peculiarly  and  preeminently  the  motor  period 
of  life.  The  child's  great  need  is  activity.  His  nature  de- 
mands it.  His  growth  and  his  health,  both  physical  and 
psychical,  depend  upon  it.  Without  it  the  establishment 
of  proper  and  necessary  coordinations  in  the  neuro-muscular 
system  and  of  that  constitutional  unity  which  the  ancients 
described  in  the  phrase,  "A  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body," 
is  impossible. 

The  characteristic  mode  of  childhood  activity  is  play 
activity,  which  is  sometimes  interpreted  as  a  sort  of  resur- 
gence, in  the  individual,  of  the  racial  past.  It  is  true  that 
play  activity  tends  strongly  to  take  those  forms  that  involve 
the  larger  muscles,  the  simpler  coordinations,  and  "brain 
tracts  that  are  old,  well-worn,  and  pervious," — tendencies 
and  powers  that  are  racially  inherited  from  the  hoariest  of 
hoary  antiquity, — but  while  the  elements  of  play  come  from 
the  past,  the  secret  of  play  is  found  in  the  present.  The 
secret  of  play  is  found,  not  in  racial  history,  but  in  indi- 
vidual development.  Yet  this  is  hardly  a  fair  statement,  for 
the  secret  of  play  is  itself  a  racial  inheritance.  There  seems 
to  be  an  inborn  tendency  to  exercise  the  physical  and  psychi- 
cal powers  that  are  ready  to  be  exercised  and  to  satisfy  the 
interests  that  are  related  to  these  powers.  Thus  play  may 
be  properly  regarded  as  the  joyous  exercise  of  the  powers 
and  capacities,  muscular  and  mental.  It  is  sometimes  said 
that  play  is  self-expression,  but  perhaps  it  might  better  be  said 
that  self-expression  is  play.  To  act  self-expressively  is 
pleasurable  and,  to  that  extent,  playful. 

Growth  is  the  secret  of  play,  and  play  is  the  secret  of 
growth.  The  man  who  has  never  played  at  all  is  non-ex- 
istent. He  could  not  have  grown  up  if  he  had  never  played. 


142  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

He  could  never  have  learned  to  know  his  feet  from  his 
hands,  or  learned  to  walk.  For  play  begins  with  progressive 
triumph  in  the  use  of  physical  powers — powers  of  manipu- 
lation, of  movement  and  coordination.  The  baby  gurgles 
with  joy  as  he  plays  with  his  toes,  then  exults  in  his  new- 
found ability  to  creep  about  on  the  floor,  then  in  learning  to 
balance  himself  on  his  feet,  and  stand,  and  walk.  Essen- 
tially play  is  self-discovery  and  the  trying  out  of  powers — 
the  joyous  doing  of  what  one  is  able  to  do,  the  exercise  of 
ripening  capacities,  an  exploration  in  the  realms  of  muscle 
and  mind.  It  is  growth  and  development  and  progress. 
The  motions  and  motives,  the  acts  and  thoughts  of  play,  are 
the  products  as  well  as  the  causes  of  growth.  The  indi- 
vidual in  ceasing  to  grow  ceases  to  play,  and  he  who  ceases 
to  play  ceases  to  grow.  The  compulsions  of  play  are  the 
compulsions  of  growth,  both  physical  and  mental;  inner 
compulsions,  not  external,  and  therefore  allied  to  spon- 
taneity and  freedom.  Happy  is  the  child  who  plays,  and 
happy  is  the  man  who  has  "found  his  work,"  or,  as  we 
sometimes  say,  who  has  "found  himself  in  his  work,"  for 
in  his  work  he  has  found  a  play  satisfaction,  due  to  its  suit- 
ability to  his  powers  and  capacities,  and  the  opportunity  it 
affords  for  self-expression  and  self-expansion. 

Play  and  interest  are  one  and  inseparable  as  body  and 
soul,  and  there  is  no  growth,  no  learning,  without  interest 
and  the  satisfaction  of  interest.  Needs  give  interest,  but  the 
needs  of  the  child  are  not  the  needs  of  the  adult ;  the  former 
are  the  needs  of  growth,  while  many  of  the  latter  are  gov- 
erned by  extrinsic  factors — the  necessity  of  making  a  living, 
of  doing  business,  of  paying  taxes.  The  adult  has  powers 
for  the  needs  of  adult  life;  the  child  has  powers  only  for 
the  needs  of  childhood,  except  as  tremendous  and  devastat- 
ing strain  is  put  upon  his  physical  and  nervous  system. 
Force  upon  children  activities  physically  or  mentally  beyond 
their  needs  or  beyond  their  powers,  work  in  which  they  can 
take  no  interest,  work  which  evokes  no  spontaneity  or  en- 
thusiasm and  brings  no  satisfaction,  and  you  have  done  that 
which  inevitably  will  retard  or  pervert  their  development, 


With  a  live  leader  playground  equipment  is  not  essential 


The  country  is  not  without  natural  recreation  facilities— the  old 
swimming  hole 


RURAL  RECREATION  143 

and  will  seriously  impair  the  normal  functioning  of  the  vital 
processes  within  the  body  and  very  likely  sow  the  seeds  of 
nervous  disorder. 

Let  us  see  what  the  modern  scientist  has  to  say  on  this 
subject.  The  following  is  quoted  from  Herbert  S.  Jen- 
nings, professor  of  biology  in  Johns  Hopkins  University: 
"There  is  one  method  of  the  exercise  of  the  powers  that  is 
almost  free  from  these  dangers,  and  that  is  what  we  call 
play.  For  years,  play  was  looked  upon  merely  as  a  sort  of 
inevitable  waste  of  time  among  children,  but  scientific 
study  of  the  cultivation  of  these  organisms  has  shown  that 
play  is  in  most  respects  the  best,  the  ideal  form  of  the  exer- 
cise of  the  powers.  Particularly  is  this  true  for  the  younger 
children,  but  it  is  in  large  measure  true  as  they  grow  older. 
Play  is  the  activity  which  their  own  natures  suggest  and 
guide;  it  is  varied  as  their  diverse  budding  capabilities  re- 
quire; and  when  free  it  is  not  carried  beyond  the  point 
where  one  activity  interferes  with  the  development  of 
others." 

Thus  it  is  vastly  different  from  work.  Play  has  intrinsic 
value  as  an  agency  conducive  to  normal  growth  and  develop- 
ment ;  work  possesses  no  such  developmental  value  in  itself. 
Play  follows  the  genetics  of  physical  and  psychical  develop- 
ment, and  work  does  not,  unless  carefully  chosen  and  super- 
vised, and  even  then  there  is  danger  of  mistake.  Play  causes 
no  overspecialization  in  the  use  of  any  muscle  or  group  of 
muscles ;  work  often  does.  In  play,  the  fundamental  muscles 
and  coordinations  get  their  due  proportion  of  use;  in  work 
the  finer  accessory  muscles  are  frequently  overemphasized 
at  the  expense  of  the  fundamental  and  for  too  long  a  time. 
Such  work,  especially  in  early  childhood  and  early  adoles- 
cence, sows  the  seeds  of  chorea  and  produces  neurasthenic 
symptoms  in  great  variety.  No  activity  in  play  is  performed 
with  defective  psychic  motivation,  since  it  always  accords 
with  possessed  powers  of  coordination  and  effort  and  with 
the  existing  stock  of  instinctive  and  acquired  impulses  and 
desires.  With  play  the  child  is  en  rapport. 

Not  all  work  is  child  labor.    Give  a  child  work  suited  to 


144  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

his  powers  and  appealing  to  his  interests,  give  him  work  in 
which  he  can  express  himself,  in  which  the  instincts  of 
initiation,  creativeness  and  ownership  are  involved,  in  which 
he  can  use  his  imagination  and  serve  purposes  of  his  own, 
work  that  he  can  do  with  enthusiasm  and  satisfaction,  and 
you  have  given  him  developmental  and  educative  work — 
children's  work,  not  child  labor.  This  is  the  kind  of  work 
that  he  does  when  he  joins  one  of  the  agricultural  clubs  now 
gaming  a  foothold  in  rural  America.  Give  him  also  play, 
for  much  as  there  is  in  common  between  play  and  children's 
work,  they  are  not  the  same;  there  is  something  playful  in 
play  that  is  not  in  any  work.  But  do  not  give  him  child 
labor,  for  the  results  are  exactly  those  that  Professor  Jen- 
nings mentions  as  produced  by  conditions  in  badly  conducted 
schools :  "By  continued  repression  of  many  of  the  powers, 
and  by  forcing  activity  in  powers  not  yet  ready,  strain  is 
brought  about;  spontaneity  is  done  away  with;  interest  in 
work  is  destroyed ;  the  instinct  of  workmanship  rooted  out, 
hate  for  work  cultivated  in  place  of  it."  He  speaks  of 
malnutrition  and  nervous  disturbance  as  among  the  evil 
consequences  of  such  repression  and  forcement — conse- 
quences is  no  wise  associated  with  play,  except  through  the 
fact  that  play,  and  especially  vigorous  outdoor  play,  is  the 
best  of  all  preventive  agencies  and  a  therapeutic  agency  of 
no  little  value.  No  child  labor,  an  increasing  amount  of 
children's  work,  and  always  an  abundance  of  play  and 
recreation,  is  the  right  of  every  child  in  his  progress  toward 
maturity. 

One  of  the  chief  indictments  against  child  labor  is  that  it 
deprives  children  of  opportunity  to  play.  We  do  not,  how- 
ever, without  considerable  knowledge  of  child  nature,  ap- 
preciate fully  what  this  indictment  means.  To  rob  children 
of  childhood  as  playtime  is  to  rob  them  of  childhood  itself, 
for  as  Wood  says :  "Children  love  play  as  all  young  beings 
love  life,  because  life  is  play.  The  child's  life  is  one  of 
physical,  mental  and  moral  development.  Development 
means  self-expression,  self-expression  means  activity,  and 


RURAL  RECREATION  145 

activity  means  play.  Children  do  not  play  deliberately  from 
ulterior  motives;  with  them  it  is  play  for  play's  sake;  play 
is  life,  they  live  to  play ;  they  are  children  because  they  play." 

It  has  been  said  that  the  child  who  has  not  played  has 
missed  half  of  life.  Rather  he  has  missed  childhood,  which 
is  more  than  half  of  life,  since,  in  Froebel's  words,  "The 
whole  later  life  of  man,  even  to  the  moment  when  he  shall 
leave  it  again,  has  its  source  in  this  period  of  childhood." 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  as  Waddle  does,  that  the  child 
must  play  or  he  cannot  become  a  man ;  for  play  is  function- 
ally related  to  growth  and  development  of  body  and  mind 
and  the  integration  of  personality.  It  is  the  secret  of  all 
progress  in  the  individual  and  the  race.  Norsworthy  and 
Whitley  write :  "A  child  who  does  not  play  not  only  misses 
much  of  the  joy  of  childhood,  but  he  can  never  be  a  fully 
developed  adult.  He  will  lack  in  many  of  the  qualities  most 
worth  while  because  many  of  the  avenues  of  growth  were 
unused  and  neglected  during  the  most  plastic  period  of  his 
life." 

Childhood  is  properly  playtime,  not  worktime.  By  no 
means  is  a  workless  childhood  implied,  but  the  work  of  chil- 
dren should  be  children's  work  in  amount  and  kind,  and  not 
child  labor.  Nor  is  a  playless  adulthood  implied  either  as  a 
fact  or  a  desideratum.  Grown-ups  play  and  ought  to  play. 
In  a  recent  psychological  essay,  Professor  Patrick  so  de- 
fines play  as  to  include  practically  all  the  activities  of  chil- 
dren and  a  large  share  of  those  of  adults,  such,  for  instance, 
as  baseball,  football,  tennis,  golf,  polo,  billiards  and  count- 
less other  games  and  sports;  diversions  such  as  travelling, 
hunting,  fishing,  yachting,  motoring,  flying,  dancing,  vaca- 
tion outings,  games,  races,  spectacles,  fairs,  amusements, 
and  expositions;  the  theatre,  opera,  moving  pictures,  lec- 
tures and  entertainments,  the  enjoyment  of  music,  painting, 
poetry  and  other  arts;  the  daily  paper,  the  magazine,  the 
short  story,  and  the  novel.  A  difference  is  sometimes  noted 
between  the  play  of  children  and  the  recreation  of  adults; 
but  adults  do  play  in  response  to  purely  and  distinctly  play- 


146  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ful  impulses,  and  children  in  school  or  at  work  have  need 
and  desire  for  that  recreation  which  is  diversional,  relaxa- 


tional,  re-creative. 


QUESTIONS  AND   ANSWERS 

In  their  comings  and  goings,  hither  and  thither,  the  agents 
of  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee  have  made  inquiry 
concerning  play  and  recreation,  supplementing  by  per- 
sonal observation  the  answers  they  received  to  their  ques- 
tions. Not  least  significant  among  their  discoveries  was  the 
attitude  of  hostility  frequently  shown  toward  children's 
play — or,  if  not  an  attitude  of  hostility,  one  of  milder  dis- 
approval. Up  in  the  mountains  and  down  in  the  valleys, 
in  cabin  and  painted  farm  house,  in  village  and  countryside, 
this  attitude  was  found.  Attitude,  whether  favorable,  hos- 
tile, or  indifferent,  is  important  to  find,  for  it  lies  back  of 
whatever  may  be  discovered  regarding  not  only  the  time 
allowed  to  children  for  play  activities  but  also  the  provision 
by  adults  of  such  play  facilities  as  toys  in  the  home  and  a 
playground  at  school.  Again  and  again  though  we  never 
asked,  "What  do  you  think  about  play?"  we  were  told,  in 
reply  to  the  questions  we  did  ask:  "We  don't  believe  in 
play."  If  in  that  answer  there  had  been  any  considerable 
acquaintance  with  the  science  of  child  nature,  it  could  be 
paraphrased  to  read,  "We  don't  believe  in  children." 

Long  ago  the  philosopher  Plato,  in  a  passage  frequently 
quoted,  declared  that  education  should  begin  with  the  right 
direction  of  children's  sports.  Rousseau,  some  centuries 
afterward,  with  a  philosophy  of  education  in  which  play  was 
implicit,  spoke  truly  in  saying  that  "Nature  would  have 
children  be  children  before  they  are  men  and  women." 
Froebel  at  about  the  same  time  was  calling  play  "the  germi- 
nal leaves  of  all  later  development."  And  now,  when  we 
examine  the  literature  of  childlife  and  education,  we  find 
the  praise  of  play  insistently  repeated  and  emphasized : 


RURAL  RECREATION  147 

There  is  no  agency  known  to  man  working  so  much  for 
physical  and  mental  development,  for  quickness  of  body  and 
mind,  for  poise,  self-confidence,  ability  to  correlate  mental 
and  bodily  action,  and  above  all  for  that  vague  thing  called 
personality,  as  play. — Bulletin  on  Physical  Education,  De- 
partment of  Public  Instruction,  Indiana. 

In  their  play  children  learn  to  observe  quickly,  to  judge, 
to  weigh  values,  to  pick  out  essentials,  to  give  close  atten- 
tion; they  learn  the  value  of  cooperation,  to  recognize  the 
rights  of  others  as  well  as  to  insist  on  their  own  being  recog- 
nized ;  they  learn  the  meaning  of  freedom  through  law ;  they 
learn  the  value  and  function  of  work  and  the  joy  of  ac- 
complishment. No  wonder  that  play  is  regarded  by  many  as 
the  most  important  educational  factor  of  them  all. — Nors- 
worthy  and  Whitley  in  The  Psychology  of  Childhood. 

Play  at  its  best  is  only  a  school  of  ethics.  It  gives  not 
only  strength,  but  courage  and  confidence,  tends  to  simplify 
life  and  habits,  gives  energy,  decision  and  promptness  of 
the  will,  brings  consolation  and  peace  of  mind  in  evil  days, 
is  a  resource  in  trouble,  and  brings  out  individuality. — G. 
Stanley  Hall,  in  Youth. 

One  hale  and  hearty  and  fairly  prosperous  farmer 
averred,  with  the  accent  on  the  ego,  "I  never  played  when  I 
was  a  boy."  Others,  not  so  hale  and  hearty  or  prosperous, 
or  quite  so  self-satisfied,  made  the  same  statement.  Now 
it  is  doubtful,  as  already  noted,  if  such  a  statement  is  ever 
true.  And  if  it  were  true,  in  any  particular  case,  be  it  re- 
membered that  what  a  man  becomes  without  play  is  no 
proper  measure  of  what  he  might  have  become  with  it.  By 
the  same  token,  inverted,  what  a  man  becomes  with  child 
labor  in  his  past  history  is  not  a  true  measure  of  what  he 
might  have  become  without  it. 

The  "I-never-played"  people  conceive  of  play,  perhaps, 
chiefly  in  terms  of  its  most  easily  recognized  and  remem- 
bered forms — such  as  baseball  or  going  to  parties.  But  play 
does  not  require  equipment  or  special  occasion,  importantly 
as  these  contribute  to  the  variety  and  richness  of  the  play 
life.  Play  is  less  conspicuously  but  not  less  truly  play  in 


148  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

such  simple  manifestations  as  running  races  with  a  dog, 
paddling  in  a  mud  puddle  with  bare  feet  (or  even  merely 
going  barefoot),  throwing  sticks  into  the  creek  to  see  them 
float  downstream,  jousting  with  mullein  stalks  in  the  pasture, 
or  lying  face  upward  upon  a  grassy  hillside  and  finding  lions 
and  elephants  and  other  wild  animals  in  the  clouds.  Were 
you  ever  a  child  ?  Then  you  played. 

True  play  is  always  wholesome,  but  when  its  normal  ex- 
pression is  balked,  or  when  the  environment  is  unhealthful, 
it  may  take  perverted  and  even  dangerous  forms.  In  other 
words,  the  opportunities  for  play  must  be  wholesome.  We 
must  remember,  too,  that  the  term  "play"  is  commonly  used 
to  include  all  ways  of  having  "a  good  time."  That  lets  in 
a  great  many  pleasures  and  amusements  that  may  or  may  not 
be  wholesome.  And  so  it  is  said,  with  some  appearance  of 
fidelity  to  facts,  that  play  is  morally  dangerous.  But  the 
thing  that  is  dangerous  is  not  play  but  the  environment  of 
play.  The  thing  that  is  dangerous  is  the  lack  of  encourage- 
ment of,  and  provision  for,  the  play  that  is  wholesome. 
The  thing  that  is  dangerous  is  the  absence  of  high  ideals  for 
the  play  life  of  children  and  of  the  community.  Children 
ought  to  play  and  they  ought  to  have  good  times,  but  on 
parents  and  teachers  and  all  citizens  rests  the  responsibility 
of  safeguarding  the  conditions  and  directing  the  forms  of 
play.  Certainly  we  must  not  limit  our  conception  of  whole- 
some, self-expressive  play  to  those  forms,  like  tag  and  base- 
ball, in  which  physical  exercise  is  conspicuous,  much  less 
confound  it  with  physical  exercise.  Companionship  is  play, 
association  with  others  is  play,  and  what  we  may  call  the 
"social  life"  of  childhood  is  comprehended  in  the  meaning  of 
the  term.  Most  play  and  the  best  play  requires  one  or  more 
playmates,  for  without  them  many  of  the  forms  and  many 
of  the  values  of  play  are  impossible.  Play  is  largely  social 
experience,  and  as  such  is  self -expressive  and  developmental 
and  wholesomely  pleasurable.  Games  are  social  play,  and 
so  are  picnics  and  parties. 

The  disfavor  and  disrepute  in  which  play  is  held  by  many 


RURAL  RECREATION  149 

rural  fathers  and  mothers  seems  to  extend  to  the  whole 
category  of  play  activities.  It  is  by  no  means  confined  to 
those  forms  which,  like  dancing,  are  peculiarly  liable,  if  not 
properly  safeguarded  and  supervised,  to  environmental  influ- 
ences and  dangers.  It  apparently  applies  to  play  in  any 
form — to  play  as  play.  Absent  in  many  cases  is  any  concep- 
tion of  play  except  as  idleness,  a  waste  of  time,  something 
that  is  not  work.  There  was  Abe  Fowler,  for  instance,  who 
said,  "Boys  don't  need  no  time  to  play.  When  they  hain't 
workin'  they  oughtta  be  sleepin',  I  reckon."  Another  man 
said  of  his  own  boys,  "There's  plenty  of  work  for  'em  and  no 
time  for  foolishness."  Another :  "I've  got  a  place  for  my 
boy  to  play — cuttin'  sprouts  and  weeds,  and  wet  days  he 
c'n  git  wood." 

This  notion  that  parental  duty  consists  in  considerable  part 
in  keeping  children  from  playing  is  rather  common.  There 
was  pride  in  such  statements  of  fathers  and  mothers  as  the 
following:  "We  never  give  'em  no  time  to  play."  "We 
don't  believe  in  games."  "Our  children  never  bother  with 
games."  "We  don't  fool  with  any  fool  thing  like  that." 
"We  don't  believe  much  in  play."  One  mother  said,  "I  raised 
my  children  in  a  holler  and  they  didn't  1'arn  any  of  that  non- 
sense." Then  there  were  answers  more  strongly  indicative 
of  religious  and  moralistic  sentiment:  "I  don't  like  to  see 
children  put  in  time  on  games  like  dominoes.  I'd  as  soon 
see  'em  play  cards."  "Parties  used  to  be  all  right,  but  they 
make  harm  out  of  everything  these  days."  "That's  what's 
wrong  with  the  world.  The  young  people  want  to  spend  too 
much  time  in  foolishness."  "I  don't  want  my  children  play- 
ing out  in  the  neighborhood  with  other  children.  You  never 
know  what  they're  up  to  or  who  they're  with."  "I  don't 
believe  in  them  things.  All  my  children  have  'professed* 
and  they  go  to  church  and  Sunday  School."  Thus  it  ap- 
pears that  in  not  a  few  minds  there  is  not  only  a  moral 
antipathy  between  play  and  work  and  an  identity  between 
play  and  idleness,  but  a  deep  and  inevitable  opposition  be- 
tween the  joy  and  happiness  of  play  and  the  seriousness  of 


ISO  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

religion.  These  are  misconceptions  due  to  ignorance  of  the 
nature  and  function  of  play  and  of  the  possibility  of  develop- 
ing in  the  community  the  opportunities  and  facilities  of  a 
rich  and  wholesome  play  life,  not  only  for  the  young  but  for 
all. 

Occasionally  a  favorable  attitude  toward  the  play  and 
social  life  of  children  was  expressed.  A  mother  told  us, 
"We're  too  hard  on  the  boy.  We  never  give  him  no  time 
off.  He's  a  slave."  That  family  was  caught  in  the  hard 
grind  of  making  a  living  from  poor  land  by  poor  methods, 
but  the  method  of  working  the  boy  to  the  exclusion  of  play 
was  the  worst  method  of  all.  A  farmer  who  had  observed 
or  read  or  heard  something  of  the  truth  about  play  declared 
emphatically,  "I  believe  in  it.  If  children  don't  play  it 
stunts  their  growth."  One  father  averred  that  "If  a  boy 
don't  get  no  chance  to  play  he's  no  better'n  a  dog."  And 
another  explained  his  favorable  opinion  of  play  and  good 
times  for  boys  and  girls  by  saying,  "I  was  a  boy  oncet 
myself."  Perchance  it  was  the  lack  of  play  and  good  times 
in  the  childhood  of  men  and  women  now  hostile  to  these 
things  that  explains  their  present  attitude — a  childhood  of 
child  labor,  an  adulthood  with  no  remembrance  or  under- 
standing of  the  spirit  of  play.  To  keep  the  spirit  of  play  is 
to  keep  young.  Groos  says  that  children  are  young  because 
they  play  and  not  vice  versa,  and  Hall  adds  that  men  grow 
old  because  they  stop  playing  and  not  conversely. 

STARVED   CHILDREN 

Because  of  the  failure  of  adults  to  see  that  play  belongs 
to  the  very  concept  of  childhood,  because  of  ignorance  of  its 
values  or  fear  of  its  supposed  dangers,  many  a  child  is 
starved  for  the  food  and  drink  of  childhood.  Or,  know- 
ing not  the  hunger  and  thirst,  he  lacks  the  sustenance  and 
refreshment  of  play,  its  blessedness  and  benefit.  For  with- 
out play,  the  play  impulse  may  perish  and  the  play  desire 
fade  out.  Thus  it  was  with  the  twelve-year-old  boy  who 


RURAL  RECREATION  151 

said,  "I'd  rather  sit  in  the  house  than  play."  A  little  girl, 
not  quite  so  old,  wanted  a  swing,  but  we  learned,  "Father 
wouldn't  put  me  up  a  swing.  He  said  I  didn't  need  to  play." 

There  was  one  community,  prosperous  and  pleasant  to 
look  upon  in  its  physical  aspects,  where  it  was  planned  at 
Christmas  time  to  present  a  cantata  in  which  the  children 
should  participate.  Santa  Claus  was  to  take  part.  The 
children  were  all  eagerness,  and  were  looking  forward 
especially  to  seeing  the  little  old  man  from  the  land  of  the 
reindeer,  with  his  bag  of  presents  and  his  kindness  and 
good  cheer.  Such  things  are  dear  to  the  heart  of  childhood. 
But  there  were  older  and  maybe  wiser  people  in  that  com- 
munity who  did  not  believe  in  such  things.  They  did  not 
believe  in  play-acting  or  even  in  good  times — especially  in  the 
church.  They  did  not  believe  in  Santa  Claus.  And  so  there 
was  no  cantata  and  no  Santa  Claus.  Christmas  in  that  com- 
munity was  made  safe  for  children. 

The  smaller  children  should  have  playthings  in  the  house 
and  the  yard — which  need  cost  little  or  nothing.  A  few 
broken  bits  of  china  were  all  that  one  little  girl  could  muster, 
and  with  them  she  played  tea-party — though  where  she  had 
ever  heard  of  a  real  tea-party  was  a  mystery.  Girls  should 
have  dolls  to  tend  and  cherish.  Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick,  who 
spent  twenty  years  studying  the  plays  and  games  of  children, 
writes :  "Doll  play  is  a  form  of  toy  play  in  connection  with 
which  very  complex  mental  and  social  developments  take 
place.  Dolls,  like  other  toys,  have  their  chief  interest  in 
the  fact  that  they  serve  as  instruments  about  which  cluster 
instinct  feelings  that  need  expression  and  development.  In 
this  case  it  is  the  domestic  instincts  that  are  ripening.  Love 
grows  not  with  the  beauty  and  completeness  of  the  doll,  but 
with  the  amount  of  time  and  attention  given  to  it  by  the 
girl.  Hence  arises  the  great  affection  that  girls  have  for 
rag  dolls.  The  rag  doll  gives  more  opportunity  for  work, 
and  therefore  more  opportunity  for  the  expression  of  affec- 
tion. Many  girls  are  exceedingly  lonely  without  their  dolls, 
but  find  a  sufficient  sense  of  companionship  as  soon  as  they 


152  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

have  them,  even  if  there  are  no  human  beings  near.  Girls 
talk  to  dolls  extensively  and  tell  them  their  troubles." 

The  flower  of  play  blossoms  sweetly,  if  not  very  fully, 
under  the  most  untoward  circumstances.  It  was  in  a  dreary- 
looking  mining  camp,  with  boxes  for  houses,  muddy  lanes 
for  streets,  and  garbage  heaps  for  backyards,  that  we  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Vera  Vernon,  nine  years  old.  She  had 
no  mother;  leastwise,  her  mother  had  gone  away  to  escape 
the  brutal  treatment  of  her  husband,  a  miner,  and  came  back 
only  once  a  year  to  see  the  children  and  clean  up  the  house. 
The  house  must  have  needed  a  good  deal  of  cleaning  up, 
for  when  we  saw  it  the  place  was  filthy.  The  room  we 
entered  was  used  as  kitchen,  living  room  and  bedroom. 
Stale  food  and  garbage  on  table  and  shelves.  A  couple  of 
dilapidated  old  chairs,  one  with  a  broken  rocker.  Coal  in 
a  washtub.  A  pile  of  cabbages  in  one  corner.  An  unmade 
bed  in  another.  Rags  on  the  floor  where  the  boys  slept.  As 
we  approached  the  house,  we  could  look  through  this  room 
to  the  back  porch,  where  Vera  was  lustily  scrubbing  the 
floor.  Diffidently  she  responded  to  our  greeting  but  warmed 
to  our  friendly  overtures.  "I've  been  making  a  playhouse 
on  the  back  porch,"  she  informed  us  and  led  us  out  to  see. 
With  manifest  pride  she  showed  us  the  clean  floor,  a  little 
box  containing  broken  dishes  and  fragments  of  stone,  and, 
last  but  not  least,  a  rag  doll.  She  told  us  of  the  wonderful 
"store  doll"  that  had  come  to  her  at  Christmas  time  two 
years  before.  She  ran  across  to  a  neighbor's  for  a  key, 
with  which  she  unlocked  the  parlor,  where  all  the  treasures 
of  the  house  were  kept — the  lard,  the  jam,  the  apple  butter, 
and  the  wonderful  Christmas  doll,  with  eyes  that  opened 
and  shut,  the  wonderful  doll  from  the  store  securely  fastened 
in  the  box  just  as  it  came' — and  on  the  box  the  price 
mark:  $6.50. 

In  part,  the  limitations  on  the  amount  and  variety  of  chil- 
dren's play  are  the  result  of  the  physical  isolation  of  many 
of  the  homes  in  which  children  are  found.  A  mother  told 
us  that  her  boys  and  girls  had  never  had  a  chance  to  play 


RURAL  RECREATION  153 

with  other  children  until  the  family  moved  across  the  moun- 
tain to  the  house  they  were  then  occupying  by  the  side  of  a 
road.  Remote  enough  was  their  present  location,  but  not  so 
far  away  from  everybody  as  the  little  cabin  entirely  sur- 
rounded by  mountain  walls — and  no  road  leading  out  or  in. 
We  found  a  number  of  instances  in  which  the  one  or  two 
children  in  the  family  had  no  playmates  or  companions  or 
friends  of  their  own  age.  Away  up  on  a  mountain  fourteen- 
year-old  Julia  did  all  the  housework  while  the  mother  went 
down  into  the  valley  every  day,  working  out ;  the  father  had 
"fits"  and  stayed  at  home.  Girls  of  her  own  age  Julia  had 
never  even  met.  But  back  there  in  that  country  of  high  hills 
and  deep  valleys  the  need  and  desire  for  human  contacts 
and  friendship  exists  as  it  exists  elsewhere.  There  is  more 
than  curiosity  in  the  attention  given  the  visiting  stranger. 
Where  one  of  West  Virginia's  creeks  begins  a  woman  of  our 
party  made  friends  with  a  girl  of  14,  who,  after  the  ice  was 
broken,  said  simply,  "I  like  you."  And  when  this  new-found 
friend,  "the  stranger,"  went  away,  the  little  girl  climbed  up 
to  a  ledge  of  rock  overlooking  the  trail,  and  the  woman, 
looking  back  till  the  trail  turned  in  the  forest,  saw  limned 
against  the  skyline  the  lone  figure  of  a  lonely  girl  in  calico. 
The  woman  waved,  but  no  response.  The  explanation  of 
this  omission,  perhaps,  is  to  be  found  in  another  instance, 
when  the  visitor  waved  back  to  a  little  group  of  mother  and 
children  standing  before  the  cabin  door  and  overheard  the 
question  of  the  oldest  of  the  girls,  "Ma,  wha'd  she  do  that 
fer?" 

This  physical  isolation  is  also  a  social  isolation.  It  can 
be  in  a  measure  overcome  by  good  roads,  for  roads  are  a 
means  of  communication;  much  more,  by  good  schools, 
where  children  can  meet  and  play  and  get  acquainted,  and 
where  centers  of  community  life  can  be  established.  Not 
least  effective  in  overcoming  the  social  isolation  that  is  more 
than  physical  are  the  county  agricultural  and  home  demon- 
stration agents,  with  their  boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  and  their 
own  personal  comings  and  goings  in  the  countryside.  Nor 


154  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

need  it  be  that  the  physically  isolated  home  shall  be  entirely 
without  a  recreational  life  of  its  own.  There  are  families 
that  play  together — fathers  and  mothers  with  their  children. 
Such  families  are  few.  Ordinarily  the  members  of  the 
family  go  away  from  home  to  play  and  have  a  good  time, 
and  do  not  go  together,  but  once  we  came  upon  a  mother 
dancing  in  the  field  with  her  children,  all  holding  hands  in  a 
ring,  and  found  a  father  who  had  bought  a  game  of  checkers 
in  order  to  play  with  his  1 3-year-old  boy  evenings  after  work. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  in  many  communities  where  the 
people,  young  or  old,  seldom  get  together  in  a  social  or  recre- 
ational way,  gatherings  of  this  nature  were  once  more  com- 
mon than  they  are  now.  Within  the  memory  of  men  and 
women  with  whom  we  talked  there  were  numerous  occasions 
of  general  participation  in  "good  times" — spelling  bees,  corn- 
huskings,  quiltings,  barbecues,  parties,  dances,  and  so  on. 
Physical  isolation  was  certainly  no  greater  than  at  present, 
and  social  isolation  was  less.  We  sought  explanation  for 
this  decadence  of  social  and  recreational  life  in  communities 
where  it  had  occurred.  In  some  cases  it  was  due  apparently 
to  the  change  from  pioneer  to  settled  conditions — the  com- 
mon battle  against  the  wilderness  was  over,  and  each  man 
had  now  withdrawn  to  his  own  house  and  farm.  As  for 
dances,  they  had  grown  in  disfavor,  especially  with  the 
church  people.  One  man  said :  "We  used  to  have  lots 
of  dances  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  lots  of  other  good  times. 
But  we  don't  believe  in  dancing  now.  We  hadn't  read  the 
Bible  much  then  and  didn't  know  it  was  wrong,  but  now 
since  we've  been  to  church  and  Sunday  School,  and  read  the 
Bible,  we  know  it's  wrong  for  the  young  people  to  dance." 
A  more  specific  explanation  was  given  by  another  man,  as 
follows :  "Dances  and  parties  used  to  be  all  right,  but  fools 
got  to  bringing  whiskey  and  that  made  trouble."  The  taboo 
against  certain  forms  of  recreation  and  amusement  was  ex- 
tended by  association  to  other  forms,  but  there  was  also  a 
general  religious  opposition  to  frivolity  and  foolishness. 
The  whole  philosophy  of  life  became  serious.  In  some  com- 


RURAL  RECREATION  155 

munities  the  decline  of  social  and  recreational  activities  was 
explained  as  due  largely  to  the  emigrating  of  the  young 
people  to  the  towns  and  cities.  Another  explanation — and 
also  a  partial  explanation,  perhaps,  of  the  exodus  of  these 
young  people — was  this,  that  the  young  people  want  to  enjoy 
the  present  forms  of  urban  recreation,  which  their  elders 
cannot  supply,  and  that  they  scorn  and  ridicule  those  forms 
which  their  elders  can  supply,  with  the  result  that  all  attempt 
at  rural  recreation  has  been  given  up. 

We  visited  one  community  in  which  we  were  told,  in 
answer  to  our  question  as  to  what  the  children  and  young 
people  did  for  play  and  recreation,  "Oh,  they  jest  set 
around."  "Jest  settin'  around"  is  certainly  not  play,  and  as 
certainly  is  not  work,  and  it  possesses  the  virtues  of  neither. 
It  seems  to  come  nearer  to  loafing,  and  we  saw  a  good  deal 
of  that.  But  children  in  their  idleness  are  busy  with  what- 
ever their  minds  find  to  feed  upon,  and  if  they  do  not  play 
in  vigorous  and  wholesome  ways,  they  find  something  else 
to  do — for  even  "idle"  boys  and  girls  have  frequent  desires 
to  do  something.  One  father's  method  of  keeping  his  12- 
year-old  son  out  of  the  reform  school  was  not  to  let  him 
"go  anywhere"  or  "do  anything,"  but  it  did  not  prove  suc- 
cessful. The  reform  school  was  where  that  boy  went  as  a 
result. 

Charles  W.  Waddle,  the  psychologist,  writes:  "On  the 
theory  of  catharsis  certain  strong  instinctive  tendencies, 
now  no  longer  useful  in  their  primitive  form,  require  to  be 
exercised  in  attenuated  and  modified  ways  until  their  period 
of  nascency  has  passed  and  control  of  them  has  been  at- 
tained. To  illustrate,  the  pugnacious  tendencies  of  boys  find 
suitable  exercise  in  football,  boxing  and  wrestling,  instead 
of  being  allowed  to  run  riot  in  quarrels  and  fights.  If 
allowed  proper  opportunity  to  explore,  collect,  fish,  swim, 
hunt,  to  care  for  and  train  pets,  and  the  like,  boys  have  less 
tendency  to  destroy  or  steal  property,  to  torment  animals, 
or  commit  other  anti-social  acts."  In  city  or  country,  play 
in  abundance  and  variety  is  the  best  known  preventive  of 


156  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

evil  thoughts  and  improper  behavior — not  only  because  of 
the  moral  training  it  affords  but  because  of  the  harmless 
expression  it  gives  to  instincts  and  tendencies  in  need  of 
socialization  and  sublimation.  From  this  standpoint  play  is 
of  notable  service  in  relation  to  the  psycho-sexual  life  and 
the  impulses  and  interests  arising  therefrom.  This  problem 
of  sex  runs  through  the  whole  of  childhood  and  youth. 
Physiologically,  play  conduces  to  sex  normality,  and  socially 
is  potent  in  rationalizing  the  attitude  of  the  sexes  toward 
each  other.  Pugnacity  and  the  sex  life  furnish  only  two 
examples  of  the  important  relation  that  play  bears  to 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  health. 

The  playless  community  is  a  dangerous  community  in 
which  to  bring  up  children.  Where  opportunities  are  lack- 
ing for  normal,  wholesome  play,  opportunities  are  not  lack- 
ing for  something  else.  We  visited  two  communities  which 
may  be  designated  as  "A"  and  "B,"  lying  about  two  miles 
apart.  In  "A"  community  the  play  spirit  is  strong  and  is 
shared  by  young  and  old.  There  is  a  live  school  with  a 
teacher  interested  in  the  playground  and  in  the  social  affairs 
of  the  community  at  large.  During  the  winter  preceding 
our  visit,  several  pie  and  ice-cream  sociables  had  been  held 
under  the  auspices  of  the  agricultural  club  to  which  all  of 
the  boys  and  girls  belong.  There  had  been  under  the  same 
auspices  a  marshmallow  roast,  a  number  of  parties  at  the 
homes  of  the  club  members,  and  two  public  entertainments. 
This  does  not  exhaust  the  list  of  club  affairs,  to  which  must 
be  added  other  parties  in  the  community,  a  few  dances,  and 
in  the  spring  and  summer  several  baseball  games.  "B"  com- 
munity has  about  the  same  population  of  children  and  young 
people,  but  no  agricultural  club,  no  public  recreational  gath- 
erings of  any  kind,  not  a  single  party,  or  sociable,  or  picnic 
from  one  year's  end  to  the  other.  The  boys  and  girls  as 
they  grow  up  are  leaving  the  community  as  fast  as  they  can, 
but  there  are  some  left.  The  boys  belong  to  a  gang  which 
finds  its  chief  fun  and  function  in  going  over  to  "A"  com- 
munity, when  a  spelling  bee  or  a  dance  is  in  progress,  and, 


RURAL  RECREATION  157 

in  firing  off  pistols  which  these  rowdies  have  procured, 
making  all  the  disturbance  possible,  and  sometimes  resorting 
to  even  wilder  methods  of  spoiling  or  breaking  up  the  occa- 
sion. That  is  their  idea  of  having  a  good  time.. 

In  another  community  the  gang  of  boys  finds  nothing 
more  delightful  to  do  than  to  get  crazy  on  "old  hen,"  raid 
orchards,  steal  chickens,  and  break  the  schoolhouse  win- 
dows. There  is  still  another  playless  community  where 
hoodlumism  prevails  among  the  older  boys  and  even  the 
girls,  and  where  the  smaller  children  are  rapidly  learning 
their  ways.  Five  churches  stand  guard  there  against  any 
form  of  amusement,  their  opposition  extending  to  movies, 
dances,  and  card  parties,  but  not  to  kissing  games !  One  of 
the  chief  amusements  of  the  young  folks — from  thirteen  or 
fourteen  and  up — is  beauing  around  the  dark  streets  in  the 
evening,  and  another  is  that  of  the  boys  who  follow  the 
sweethearting  couples  and  shower  them  with  rocks.  In  sev- 
eral remote  and  playless  communities  we  learned  of  a  start- 
ling number  of  illegitimate  births  to  girls  of  14,  15,  16,  17 
years  and  older,  and  on  inquiry  into  the  individual  histories 
of  these  girls,  we  found  that  none  had  had  more  than  the 
most  meagre  experience  in  vigorous  play  and  wholesome 
recreation. 

PLAY   AND  THE  RURAL   SCHOOL 

The  critical  point  in  rural  play  and  recreation  is  the 
country  school.  Its  opportunity  in  this  field  is  as  great  as  its 
failure  to  recognize  and  seize  this  opportunity.  In  another 
chapter  of  this  volume,  Miss  Folks  presents  facts  showing 
the  inadequacy  and  in  many  cases  the  utter  unsuitability  of 
the  rural  school-yard  for  playground  purposes,  the  lack  of 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  average  teacher  in  children's  play 
and  her  inability  to  teach  games  and  organize  play  activities, 
and  the  infrequent  use  of  the  school  plant  for  community 
center  purposes.  Not  far  away  from  the  facts  of  the  rural 
situation  was  the  remark  of  the  mother  who  sent  her  ten- 


158  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

year-old  daughter  "to  school  every  day  when  school's 
a-keepin',  so  she  won't  be  playin'." 

In  going  about  among  rural  schools  in  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee and  West  Virginia,  the  writer  found  that,  irrespec- 
tive of  the  adequacy  of  play  space,  there  were  some  schools 
where  the  children  played  busily  and  zestfully  at  recess 
periods  and  others  where  they  did  not  play  at  all  but  hung 
around  unable  to  think  of  anything  to  do.  Perhaps  the 
boys  scuffled  with  one  another,  while  the  girls  strolled  about 
in  pairs  or  small  groups.  This  loafing  at  recess  time  gen- 
erally indicated  a  dead  school  on  the  inside  of  the  building. 
In  many  cases  it  could  be  traced  to  loss  of  play  traditions 
and  habits  in  the  community.  The  playless  school  offers  a 
splendid  opportunity  to  the  rural  teacher,  but  unfortunately 
it  is  an  opportunity  very  generally  neglected  or  unrealized. 
Inquiry  among  county  superintendents  indicated  that  not 
more  than  20  per  cent  and  in  many  counties  not  more  than 
5  or  10  per  cent  of  the  rural  teachers  are  capable  of 
teaching  games  and  organizing  and  directing  play.  Perhaps 
a  still  smaller  percentage  actually  does  teach  games  and  direct 
play.  Many  teachers  apparently  are  not  aware  either  of  the 
value  of  play  to  country  children  or  of  the  value  of  the 
playground  to  the  school  life.  One  teacher  said  that  she  did 
not  believe  farm  children  ought  to  play  at  school  as  they  had 
so  much  work  to  do  at  home.  A  teacher  so  densely  ignorant 
as  that  ought  not  to  have  a  certificate.  Of  course,  the  qual- 
ity of  teachers  is  not  always  what  it  ought  to  be,  though  it 
is  probably  as  good  as  can  be  expected  in  view  of  the 
scandalously  low  salaries  paid. 

Much  can  be  done  to  liven  the  playground  and  the  school 
through  paying  more  attention  to  play  and  recreation  in 
teacher-training  courses.  The  normal  schools  do  not  pay 
enough  attention  to  this  phase  of  preparation.  Every  nor- 
mal graduate  going  into  the  country  schools  to  teach  should 
possess  not  merely  a  theoretical  knowledge  of  the  educa- 
tional and  sociological  function  and  importance  of  play  but 
a  large  repertoire  of  games  for  rural  schools  and  rural  com- 


RURAL  RECREATION  159 

munities  and  a  training  in  playground  technique.  At  sum- 
mer schools  and  teachers'  meetings  these  matters  should  have 
more  attention.  The  state  department  of  education  should 
put  into  the  hands  of  rural  school  teachers  a  handbook  of 
games  containing  suggestions  as  to  how  to  make  practical 
and  effective  use  of  it.  The  teacher  makes  the  playground. 
The  size  and  equipment  of  the  playground  are  insignificant 
in  comparison  with  leadership  and  direction.  It  was  found 
in  Tennessee,  West  Virginia  and  elsewhere  that  in  those 
schools  where  the  children  really  played  and  played  well 
there  was  a  teacher  who  got  out  amongst  them  at  least  occa- 
sionally, taught  them  games  and  stimulated  them  to  utilize 
the  stock  of  games  which  the  children  of  every  community 
find  they  possess  when  they  are  encouraged  to  pool  their 
own  resources.  It  is  a  fact  worth  noting  that  while  children 
play  instinctively,  they  have  to  learn  how  to  play;  play  is 
unlearned  activity,  but  games  are  learned  activity  and  the 
playground  calls  for  games. 

The  story  of  what  happened  in  Madison  County,  Missis- 
sippi, should  be  interesting  and  suggestive  to  teachers  and 
school  officials  in  other  localities.  The  Teachers*  Associa- 
tion of  the  county  appointed  a  committee  to  make  arrange- 
ments for  a  special  play  program  in  the  usual  program  of 
the  annual  county  field  day.  A  standard  text,  "Games  for 
the  Playground,  Home,  School  and  Gymnasium,"  by  Jessie 
H.  Bancroft,  was  adopted  and  distributed  to  each  school. 
Each  teacher  used  her  own  judgment  in  the  selection  of 
games.  On  the  day  appointed  each  school  was  assigned  a 
definite,  staked-off  area  on  the  play  field.  At  a  signal  from 
the  leader  each  school  began  playing  its  own  game.  This 
was  continued  for  a  period  of  forty-five  minutes  with  brief 
intervals  when  games  were  changed  and  play  began  again. 
Then  at  the  end  of  the  forty-five  minute  period,  the  first, 
second  and  third  grades  of  all  the  schools  assembled  in  the 
center  of  the  field  and  played  a  game  together.  The  rest  of 
the  day  was  taken  up  in  regular  field  day  events  such  as  base- 
ball, basketball,  pole  vaulting,  running  and  jumping.  Intro- 


160  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ducing  a  play  period  into  the  regular  field  day  program  was 
found  to  be  valuable  not  only  because  it  secured  the  active 
participation  of  every  child,  but  it  also  demonstrated  to  the 
teachers  the  value  of  games,  with  the  result  that  they  will 
be  used  as  a  regular  feature  of  school  work  in  the  future. 
The  superintendent  of  the  county  schools  pronounced  the 
experiment  a  shining  success  and  wrote:  "Next  year  this 
will  mean  that  there  will  be  no  pupils  in  this  county  who  do 
not  play.  There  will  be  at  least  a  part  of  each  day  devoted 
to  play  for  the  fun  of  it,  and  for  the  exercise  that  it  gives." 

It  was  found  in  West  Virginia  that  the  games  most  pop- 
ular at  the  rural  schools  visited  were  Prisoner's  Base,  Drop- 
the-Handkerchief ,  Ring  Around  a  Rosy,  Baseball,  Chase  the 
Fox,  and  in  bad  weather,  Clap  In  and  Clap  Out.  A  striking 
discovery  was  the  small  proportion  of  games  involving  real 
team  or  cooperative  play.  It  is  notable  that  at  most  schools 
the  boys  and  girls  actually  play  but  a  few  of  the  games  they 
know.  At  several  where  the  children  played  a  great  deal, 
"base"  was  the  game  they  played  day  after  day,  week  after 
week,  boys  and  girls  and  small  and  large  children  together. 

Games  for  use  in  rural  schools,  according  to  Professor  E. 
C.  Lindeman,  of  the  American  Country  Life  Association, 
should  meet  the  following  requirements:  I.  Safe  to  health; 
2.  Adaptable  to  small  as  well  as  large  numbers ;  3.  Adaptable 
to  young  as  well  as  old ;  4.  Adaptable  to  both  sexes ;  5.  Re- 
quiring minimum  equipment;  6.  Requiring  cooperative 
activity.  The  games  which  Mr.  Lindeman  feels  will  best 
meet  these  requirements  are  as  follows :  I .  Head  and  Tail 
Tag  (Black  and  White)  ;  2.  Straddle  Ball  (a)  Line  forma- 
tion, (b)  Circle  formation;  3.  Three  Deep;  4.  Squirrel  in 
Trees;  5.  Numbers  Change;  6.  Dodgeball;  7.  Circle  Dodge- 
ball  (progressive)  ;  8.  Circle  Relay  (Spoke  Relay)  ;  9.  Circle 
Relay  (with  zig-zag  or  leap-frog  variations)  ;  10.  Japanese 
Crab  Race  (man,  monkey,  crab  variations);  n.  Pinco-O; 
12.  Overhead  Relay;  13.  Over  and  Under  Relay;  14.  Shuttle 
Relay;  15.  Zig-zag  Relay;  1 6.  All  Up  Relay ;  17.  Volleyball; 
18.  Hill  Dill;  19.  "I  Say  Stoop"  ("O'Grady  Says");  20. 


RURAL  RECREATION  161 

"Looby  Loo"  (folk  dance)  ;  21.  "Farmer  in  the  Dell"  (folk 
dance) ;  22.  Partner  Tag ;  23.  Triple  Tag ;  24.  Oyster  Cracker 
Relay  (indoors)  ;  25.  Water  Glass  Relay  (indoors)  ;  26. 
Apple  Basket  Relay;  27  Potato  Paring  Contest  (teams); 
28.  Potato  Relay;  29.  Corn  Stringing  Contest  (teams)  ;  30. 
Skip  and  Rope  Relay. 

Mr.  Gibbons,  in  his  chapter  on  "The  Rural  Home,"  and 
Mr.  Armentrout,  in  "Child  Labor  on  Farms,"  deal  with  cer- 
tain aspects  of  the  play-and-recreation  situation.  Both  give 
considerable  attention  to  the  work  of  the  county  agricultural 
and  home  demonstration  agents.  Though  in  this  work  the 
emphasis  is  primarily  economic  rather  than  social,  the 
humanistic  aspects  of  rural  rejuvenation  are  not  neglected. 
Community  organization,  whatever  its  aim,  is  in  itself  impor- 
tant from  the  standpoint  of  sociable  and  recreational  life. 
In  the  boys'  and  girls'  agricultural  clubs,  besides  the  inci- 
dental widening  of  acquaintance  and  friendship,  there  is  a 
special  place  in  the  program  of  club  activities  for  parties, 
entertainments,  field  meets,  camp  life,  and  pageantry. 

"IT'S   ALL   RIGHT   FOR   THE    CITY,    BUT " 

More  than  once  we  heard  the  opinion  expressed  that  play 
and  recreation  may  be  needed  in  the  city,  but  are  quite 
superfluous  in  the  country.  The  assumption  back  of  it 
seemed  to  be  that  country  people  are  so  much  in  the  open  air 
and  have  so  much  physical  exercise  that  play  and  recreation 
are  a  waste  of  time  and  energy.  This  represents,  of  course, 
a  narrow  and  therefore  erroneous  view  of  play.  It  is  as 
true  of  children  as  it  is  of  adults,  and  as  true  of  baseball  as 
it  is  of  checkers,  that  play  is  psychical  in  its  nature,  and  only 
incidentally,  and  sometimes  not  at  all,  a  matter  of  physical 
exercise.  On  its  sociable  side,  play  is  needed  in  the  country 
to  promote  acquaintance  and  friendship,  to  relieve  monotony, 
to  counteract  the  materialism  that  grows  up  in  an  atmosphere 
of  all  work  and  no  play,  to  destroy  isolation  and  the  sep- 
arateness  of  man  from  man — what  we  often  call  the  indi- 


162  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

vidualism  of  the  American  farmer,  something  that  is  vastly 
different  from  individuality.  In  religion  a  man  seeks  God, 
in  play  he  finds  his  fellow  man.  He  finds  his  neighbor,  his 
community,  his  own  humanity,  and  greater  ease  in  joining 
hands  with  others  to  solve  th-Hr  common  problems.  One 
reason  why  farmers  find  it  difficult  to  cooperate  for  the 
furtherance  of  their  economic  interests  is  that  they  do  not 
know  one  another  well  enough,  and  a  second  is  that  they 
never  learned  the  art  of  cooperation — an  art  that  is  learned 
nowhere  so  surely  or  so  well  as  in  the  team  games  of  boy- 
hood and  youth. 

The  common  belief  in  the  country  that  farm-work  for 
children  is  the  certain  road  to  good  physical  development 
and  health  is  hardly  justified  by  the  facts.  Comparison  of 
city  and  country  health  statistics  does  not  support  it.  More 
children  in  the  rural  than  in  the  urban  schools  have  physical 
defects.  J.  Mace  Andress  remarks  that  much  of  the  work 
that  a  boy  does  on  the  farm  consists  in  pulling  weeds, 
hoeing,  and  the  like.  Such  work  tends  to  cramp  the  chest 
and  bring  the  shoulders  forward.  If  he  drives  a  team 
(hitched  to  wagon,  cultivator,  mowing  machine,  binder),  he 
sits  on  a  seat  that  has  no  back  and  assumes  a  cramped 
position.  Andress  says :  "Children  on  the  farm  may  de- 
velop considerable  muscular  strength  .  .  .  but  there  is  little 
exercise  that  develops  vital  strength,  vigor  of  heart,  lungs 
and  digestion."  Henry  S.  Curtis  writes  that  "country  boys 
and  girls  are  apt  to  be  round-shouldered  and  flat-chested, 
with  forward  slanting  heads.  Boys  who  have  done  much 
hard  work  are  usually  awkward  and  clumsy,  almost  without 
that  grace  and  suppleness  that  are  characteristic  of  a  child 
who  has  been  trained  through  play."  In  the  army  camps 
it  was  found  that  city  boys  excelled  country  boys  in  sym- 
metry of  body,  in  quickness  and  sureness  of  action,  and  in 
resistance  to  fatigue.  They  were  mentally  more  alert. 
Now  these  results  may  not  have  been  due  to  overwork  on 
the  farm.  There  is,  it  is  true,  too  much  overwork  on  the 
farm,  but  the  more  serious  factor  in  poor  health  and  deficient 


RURAL  RECREATION  163 

development  is  the  lack  of  adequate  play.  Needed  are  the 
supplementary  and  corrective  activities  of  varied  and  vigor- 
ous play,  if  the  work  that  children  do  on  the  farm  is  not 
to  be  harmful  or  if  the  possibilities  of  physical  and  mental 
development  are  to  be  realized. 

There  is  no  intention  here  of  disparaging  country  children, 
but  only  of  pointing  out  a  serious  fault  of  country  life.  It 
as  as  true  of  the  city  as  it  is  of  the  country  that,  as  Professor 
Jennings  says,  "Opportunity  for  varied  play  under  healthful 
outward  conditions  is  beyond  doubt  the  chief  need  of  chil- 
dren ;  comparative  study  of  the  mental  and  physical  develop- 
ment of  children  to  whom  full  opportunity  for  such  play  is 
given  shows  striking  superiority,  as  compared  with  children 
to  whom  such  opportunities  are  denied." 

The  country  needs  play  and  recreation  as  a  means  of  en- 
riching country  life  and  enhancing  its  holding  power.  It 
needs  fun  and  entertainment,  athletic  games  and  sports,  occa- 
sions of  sociable  mixing  and  enjoyment,  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  normal  and  wholesome  human  hungers  and  desires 
that  express  themselves  in  play  and  recreation.  The  barren- 
ness of  social  and  recreational  life  in  many  rural  communi- 
ties is  one  reason  for  the  great  exodus  of  young  people  to  the 
cities.  Several  rural  emigrants  with  whom  we  talked  gave 
this  as  their  only  reason  for  leaving  the  country.  It  is  some- 
times said  that  the  lure  of  the  city,  rather  than  country  con- 
ditions, is  the  chief  factor  in  the  movement  to  the  centers  of 
population — that  instead  of  a  push  from  the  country  there 
is  a  pull  from  the  city.  But  even  so,  it  remains  true  that 
the  country  lacks  holding  power.  Many  factors  operate — 
the  gregarious  instinct,  the  quest  of  adventure,  opportunities 
that  appeal  to  ambition.  If  young  people  in  the  country 
should  find  in  the  country  progressive  satisfaction  of  all  the 
humanly  natural  desires  and  aspirations  associated  with 
those  elements  of  good  living  which  we  call  work,  play,  love 
and  worship,  the  loss  of  so  much  of  the  best  blood  and 
ability  from  the  country  places  would  be  checked.  Play  and 
recreation  are  not  all  of  life,  but  they  ramify  through  the 


164  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

whole  texture  of  life  in  society.  In  presenting  to  Congress 
the  report  of  the  Country  Life  Commission,  Theodore 
Roosevelt  declared:  "Our  civilization  rests  at  bottom  on 
the  wholesomeness,  the  attractiveness  and  the  completeness, 
as  well  as  the  prosperity,  of  life  in  the  country." 

Finally,  the  country  needs  play  and  recreation  because 
these  are  the  right  of  country  people.  Country  people  are 
entitled  to  equal  pleasures  and  advantages  with  city  people. 
It  is  only  country  people  themselves  who  can  establish  and 
maintain  the  democratic  balance  between  country  and  city 
in  regard  to  play,  recreation,  and  sociable  life — three  im- 
portant aspects  of  self-expression  and  self -expansion. 


CHAPTER  V 

RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY,  NEGLECT  AND      % 
DELINQUENCY 

Sara  A.  Brown 

"I  RECKEN  p'raps  if  they's  had  a  good  home  ye's  like  to 
know,"  spake  the  kindly  old  man  who  keeps  the  country- 
store  and  post  office  at  Posey  Hollow  Cross  Roads,  nine 
miles  from  the  county  seat  of  X.  He  paused  a  few  leisurely 
moments  in  his  early  morning  trade  and  listened  courteously 
to  the  writer's  inquiry  regarding  any  children  in  his  neigh- 
borhood living  with  some  one  other  than  their  own  parents. 
His  face  brightened,  his  tired  eyes  sparkled  and  his  smile 
expanded  until  nothing  but  smile  could  be  seen,  as  he  mod- 
estly yet  proudly  related  how  "me  and  my  wife  raised  two 
orphans  jes'  the  same  as  our  own."  Then  thoughtfully, 
soberly  added,  "Supposin'  somebody  not  good  and  kind 
like  my  wife  had  taken  'em  even  if  she  had  done  the  best  she 
knowed  how?"  The  one  is  a  niece,  the  other  "a  litti  bitti 
tramp"  taken  a  dozen  years  ago,  two  beautiful  girls,  now  in 
eighth  grade  and  high-school,  a  credit  to  any  family,  to  any 
neighborhood.  Such  in  the  large  is  the  rural  spirit  in  deal- 
ing with  child  dependency. 

What  becomes  of  rural  dependent  children;  under  what 
conditions  are  they  living;  who  is  responsible  for  them; 
what  factors  contribute  to  their  dependency;  and  how  far 
are  the  best  standards  applied  in  the  care  of  dependent  chil- 
dren distinctively  rural  ?  To  find  the  answers  we  go  out  into 
the  open  country,  far  removed  from  town  or  village.  Three 
or  four  houses  clustered  about  the  country  store  are  accepted 
as  rural  and  are  the  nearest  approach  to  a  closely  settled 
community.  We  interpret  dependent  children  to  mean  more 

165 


166  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

than  boys  under  16  and  girls  under  18  "dependent  on  public 
charity,  destitute,  homeless  or  abandoned,"  with  no  relatives 
legally  responsible  for  their  support,  as  defined  in  the  law. 
In  this  study,  dependent  children  are  any  under  18  deprived 
of  their  own  family  homes,  without  means  for  self-support 
and  education,  or  living  in  their  family  groups  without 
resources  for  maintaining  minimum  standards  of  life  and 
education.  For  instance,  a  mountain  farm  valued  at  less 
than  $200  constitutes  the  estate  of  six  children  under  14 
years.  Officials  do  not  consider  them  legally  dependent,  yet 
for  all  practical  purposes  they  are  now  and  will  be  dependent 
until  they  reach  an  age  capable  of  self-support.  In  appoint- 
ing administrators  and  guardians,  especially  when  strangers 
to  the  family,  courts  usually  require  bond  of  two  or  three 
times  the  value  of  the  estate  involved.  As  a  courtesy  to 
kinsfolk,  however,  as  small  a  bond  as  $50  or  $100  may  be 
required  of  a  guardian  for  a  family  of  from  three  to  six 
children  under  14,  but  this  is  no  indication  of  the  size  of 
the  estate.  In  this  study,  we  include  as  dependents,  families 
of  children  with  estates  valued  from  $12  to  $300,  though 
by  far  the  largest  majority  have  no  claim  to  property  of  any 
kind,  for  even  the  children  with  small  estates  are  dependent 
so  far  as  care  and  education  are  concerned.  Four  children 
supported  by  the  labor  of  their  widowed  mother  and  aged 
grandmother  are  not  legally  dependent  because  no  public 
fund  contributes  to  their  support.  We  class  them  as  de- 
pendents because  the  kinsfolk  are  not  able  to  support  them 
without  the  assistance  of  friendly  persons  in  the  community 
who  know  conditions  and  are  willing  to  supply  clothing, 
food  and  sometimes  money  to  make  it  possible  for  the  chil- 
dren and  mother  to  remain  together,  and  because  wherever 
public  funds  are  available  for  the  care  of  all  dependent 
children  in  their  own  homes,  such  children  receive  support 
from  the  public  treasury.  The  study  embraces,  then,  not 
only  children  who  come  within  the  law  as  it  is  administered 
through  the  county  and  through  the  state,  but  also  those 
whose  dependency  is  beyond  its  reach. 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  167 

Believing  a  limited  inquiry  in  several  communities  would 
picture  conditions  more  accurately  than  an  intensive  study 
in  two  or  three  localities,  we  selected  23  counties  *  in  West 
Virginia  offering  a  variety  of  rural  occupations  and  charac- 
teristics. They  are  counties  crossed  by  trans-continental 
trunk  lines ;  counties  lying  along  valleys  in  and  out  of  which 
one  train  runs  daily  except  Sunday;  counties  at  the  end  of 
a  "fork  line" ;  inland  counties  without  a  foot  of  railroad 
or  graded  road;  counties,  small  and  densely  populated,  107 
square  miles  with  65,000  people ;  counties,  large  and  sparsely 
settled,  1,036  square  miles  with  36,000  people;  counties  rich, 
counties  poor;  counties  given  to  orchards,  cattle  and  sheep 
raising,  coal  and  sand  mining,  to  lumbering  and  the  cutting 
of  railroad  ties  and  mine  props,  to  oil  and  gas ;  counties  with 
large  farms  of  three  or  four  hundred  acres,  with  small  hill- 
side farms  of  three  to  ten  acres ;  and  counties  dominated  by 
company  ownership,  where  lease  holders  pay  from  $i  to  $5 
a  year  for  as  much  land  as  they  want  to  "put  under  fence." 
With  the  county  seat  as  working  center,  we  interviewed 
clerks  of  county  and  circuit  courts,  superintendents  of 
schools,  truancy  officers,  overseers  of  the  poor,  keepers  of 
almshouses,  county  farm  and  home  demonstration  agents, 
superintendents  of  child-caring  institutions,  children's 
agents,  social  workers  with  the  Red  Cross  and  with  family 
agencies,  rural  teachers,  pastors  and  storekeepers.  We  vis- 
ited children  in  their  homes  and  in  their  schools ;  interviewed 
fathers,  mothers,  and  teachers ;  consulted  school  records  and 
other  public  records;  made  careful  observations;  and  con- 
firmed or  modified  our  findings  with  the  experiences  of  those 
in  each  county  in  personal  contact  with  local  conditions. 

The  score  or  more  of  homes  accustomed  to  visits  from 
children's  agents  greeted  us  as  an  old  acquaintance,  volun- 
teering much  of  the  information  desired.  For  instance, 
Fred,  age  u,  ward  of  an  orphanage  in  a  neighboring  state, 
and  foster  child  of  Mr.  Wallace,  promptly  showed  his  report 

1  Berkeley,  Cabell,  Calhoun  Grant,  Hampshire,  Hardy,  Harrison,  Jefferson. 
Kanawha,  Lewis,  McDowell,  Marion,  Mercer,  Mineral,  Morgan,  Ohio,  Preston, 
Randolph,  Summers,  Taylor,  Tucker,  Wirt  and  Wood  Counties. 


168  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

card  and  spoke  proudly  of  his  progress  in  school.  Mr. 
Wallace  finally  withdrew,  leaving  the  visitor  alone  with 
Fred,  while  hospitable  Mrs.  Wallace  prepared  lunch  for  her 
and  her  driver.  Others  were  curious  as  to  the  object  of  the 
visit  as  evidenced  by  such  questions  as,  "What's  yo'  name  ?" 
"Where  do  yo5  live?"  "Stranger  in  these  parts?"  "What's  yo' 
business  ?"  "How  old  are  yo'  ?"  But  everywhere  we  found  a 
willingness  to  talk  freely  about  the  children,  the  circum- 
stances under  which  they  were  taken  into  the  homes,  some  of 
their  present  difficulties,  and  their  plans  for  the  future.  We 
visited  families  as  near  as  1^2  miles  and  as  far  as  25  miles 
from  the  county  seat,  23  miles  from  a  railroad,  35  miles 
from  a  graded  road,  along  "bushed-out  trails,"  along  moun- 
tain streams  and  hard-surfaced  pikes.  'Modes  of  travel 
varied  with  conditions  of  roads  and  local  circumstances, 
and  were  rail,  auto,  horse  and  buggy,  mule  team  and  wagon, 
mail  wagon,  milk  wagon,  river  boat,  ferry,  horseback  and 
on  foot. 

We  spent  14  weeks  during  the  winter  of  1921,  and  secured 
information  regarding  804  dependent  rural  children,  belong- 
ing to  350  families  in  381  homes,  having  visited  458  children 
in  148  homes.  All  are  native  born,  of  native-born  parents 
and  are  white,  with  the  exception  of  10  in  four  negro  fam- 
ilies. By  far  the  largest  number  are  rural  children  of  rural 
birth.  Of  270  from  broken  homes,  living  with  relatives  and 
in  foster  homes,  all  are  of  rural  birth  with  the  possible  ex- 
ception of  31  wards  of  child-caring  agencies,  whose  family 
histories  are  not  known.  The  fact  that  neglected  dependent 
children  sometimes  become  delinquent,  led  us  to  make  limited 
observations  regarding  201  children  grouped  as  delinquent 
and  neglected  without  any  question  of  dependency.  Of  the 
201  we  visited  63  in  24  homes ;  68  are  declared  legally  delin- 
quent and  133  are  neglected.  We  made  no  effort  to  cover  all 
questions  of  dependency  in  any  one  county  or  any  one 
locality. 

Our  findings  are  accurate  as  far  as  they  go,  but  with  our 
inquiry  confined  to  families  caring  for  dependent  children, 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  169 

we  do  not  have  a  basis  for  estimating  the  extent  or  amount 
of  rural  dependency  in  general.  An  accurate  basis  for  such 
an  estimate  is  furnished,  however,  in  Mr.  Gibbons's  chapter 
on  "The  Rural  Home."  He  visited  657  families,  practically 
every  family  in  1 1  representative  farming  communities.  Of 
the  children  living  in  these  family  homes  at  the  time  of  his 
visit,  five  per  cent  had  been  taken  into  them  from  broken 
homes.  With  approximately  500,000  rural  children  under 
20  years  of  age  in  West  Virginia,  and  figuring  five  per  cent 
of  this  number  as  dependent,  we  have  a  rough  estimate  of 
25,000  dependent  rural  children  in  the  state.  We  believe 
this  is  sufficient  to  challenge  the  state  to  a  program  for  the 
care  of  all  dependent  rural  children. 

We  seek  to  make  the  findings  descriptive  rather  than  sta- 
tistical and  record  them  with  the  desire  that  they  may  carry 
conviction.  They  fall  under  seven  heads  in  Part  I  and  three 
heads  in  Part  II,  as  follows:  Part  I.  Dependency  (i) 
Statement  of  findings  on  dependency.  (2)  Children  from 
broken  homes,  (a)  With  relatives,  (b)  In  foster  homes. 
(c)  In  hit-or-miss  homes,  (d)  Responsibility  of  guardians, 
(e)  Significant  factors.  (3)  Children  bound  out  and  on 
contract.  (4)  Children  in  almshouses.  (5)  Children  born 
out  of  wedlock.  (6)  Children  in  their  own  family  groups, 
(a)  In  need  of  children's  aid  or  mothers'  pensions,  (b)  In 
dependent  families,  (c)  Feeble-minded  children  with  feeble- 
minded parents.  (7)  Standards  and  conclusions.  Part  II. 
Delinquency  and  Neglect  ( I )  Statement  of  findings  on  delin- 
quency, (a)  Nature  of  delinquency,  (b)  Treatment,  (c) 
Disposition.  (2)  Statement  of  findings  on  neglect.  (3) 
Standards  and  conclusions. 


PART   ONE 
DEPENDENCY 

STATEMENT    OF   FINDINGS    ON   DEPENDENCY 

Dependent  children  living  in  the  open  country  share  many 
things  in  common  with  all  children.  Factors  outside  their 
homes  affect  all  rural  children  alike,  such  as  distance  from 
neighbors,  school,  church,  store,  doctors,  mail  and  telephone ; 
condition  of  roads;  social  activities,  wholesome  recreation 
and  community  school  spirit.  The  stories  of  1,005  children 
contribute  to  our  findings :  on  dependency  804,  delinquency 
68  and  neglect  133.  The  writer  visited  521  children  of  the 
three  classes  in  172  homes.  The  804  dependent  children 
are  living  as  follows:  140  with  relatives;  130  in  foster 
homes;  13  bound  out;  58  in  almshouses;  24  recently  re- 
moved ;  72  born  out  of  wedlock  (duplicate  count  of  25  with 
relatives),  and  392  in  their  own  family  groups,  the  children's 
dependency  intricately  involved  with  such  problems  as  need 
for  children's  aid  or  mothers'  pensions,  family  dependency, 
and  the  condition  of  feeble-minded  children  of  feeble-minded 
parents.  It  is  significant  that  there  is  no  one  place  in  any 
county  where  information  is  assembled  regarding  dependent 
children.  As  a  result,  no  one  in  the  county  knows  the  full 
extent  of  dependency  in  rural  districts;  no  agency,  official 
or  voluntary,  reaches  cases  of  rural  dependency  in  any  large 
number ;  and  children  are  left  to  the  mercy  of  whoever  hap- 
pens to  know  them  and  to  care  enough  to  take  responsibility 
for  them. 

An  orphanage  with  a  capacity  of  25  children,  located  near 
a  village  of  about  three  hundred  people,  eleven  miles  from 
a  railroad,  is  well  known  throughout  the  county  and  the 
adjoining  counties  which  are  all  distinctively  rural.  By  far 
the  largest  number  of  children  received  are  from  the  open 

170 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  171 

country,  and  most  of  those  placed  are  accepted  in  rural 
family  homes.  Orphanages  located  in,  or  in  easy  access  of 
cities  or  "settlements,"  do  not  discriminate  against  rural 
children,  but  are  either  overcrowded  with  those  from  their 
own  communities  or  fail  to  get  in  touch  with  these  others. 
All  the  orphanages  we  visited  in  or  near  cities  report  no 
children  received  from  the  open  country.  The  receiving 
homes  of  the  state  and  of  one  private  home-finding  society 
are  the  only  homes  caring  for  rural  children  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two  located  in  the  country.  Rural  folk  have  an  aver- 
sion to  sending  children  to  an  "orphan  asylum"  under  any 
circumstances.  It  is  due  doubtless  to  the  fact  that  it  in- 
volves separation  from  their  acquaintances,  separation  from 
kinsfolk  and  an  adventure  into  the  unfamiliar,  unknown 
world.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  rural  foster  parent  to  say, 
"We  took  the  pore  little  fellow  rather  than  see  him  go  to 
the  orphan  asylum." 

Occasional  effort  is  made  to  keep  family  groups  together. 
Voluntary  agencies  such  as  the  Red  Cross,  societies  doing 
family  social  work,  orphanages,  churches  and  neighbors  take 
the  lead.  Organized  groups  are  comparatively  few  and 
when  they  attempt  to  reach  rural  children  are  handicapped 
by  lack  of  vision,  lack  of  facilities  for  transportation,  lack 
of  trained  officers  and  of  a  sustained  policy  of  organization 
and  program.  In  each  of  five  counties  the  Red  Cross  has  a 
volunteer,  and  in  each  of  five  others  a  paid  secretary  under- 
taking to  serve  civilian  and  soldier  families  throughout  the 
county.  In  two  others,  a  paid  secretary  cares  only  for 
soldiers  and  their  families.  One  worker  has  a  car  at  her 
disposal  for  visits  in  the  country.  Fqur  counties  have  fam- 
ily social  work  agencies  unable  to  get  far  into  the  country 
because  they  have  no  means  of  transportation.  The  county 
and  circuit  courts  are  official  agencies  acting  within  the  law 
in  an  effort  to  keep  families  together.  The  county  court  has 
charge  of  all  poor  relief,  medical  and  hospital  care,  and  has 
power  to  grant  mothers'  pensions.  Six  counties  out  of  23 
give  mothers'  pensions,  and  two  grant  regular  allowances 


i;2  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

of  poor  relief.  Out  of  94  families  receiving  pensions  at 
the  time  of  this  study,  19  are  rural  in  which  39  children  are 
beneficiaries.  With  two  or  three  exceptions,  poor  relief  is 
niggardly,  inadequate,  administered  with  a  sting  equivalent 
to  commitment  to  the  almshouse.  There  prevails  no  uni- 
formity of  standards,  methods,  records  or  conception  of  the 
purpose  of  either  mothers'  pensions  or  poor  relief.  The 
circuit  court  has  jurisdiction  over  social  as  distinguished 
from  relief  service.  It  prosecutes  for  non-support  and  de- 
sertion; handles  cases  entitled  to  workmen's  compensation 
and  cooperates  with  state  children's  agents  in  efforts  to  hold 
parents  and  relatives  to  full  legal  responsibility  for  support 
of  their  children.  The  fact  that  the  court  fails  to  reach 
rural  families  is  due  to  no  lack  of  need,  but  rather  to  lack 
of  official  avenues  for  contact  with  rural  districts  and  con- 
ditions. 

West  Virginia  officially  recognized  the  need  of  a  state- 
wide program  in  1919  when  the  State  Humane  Society  was 
reorganized  and  given  the  name  of  the  State  Board  of  Chil- 
dren's Guardians.  This  board  is  composed  of  three  members 
appointed  by  the  governor  for  six  years  and  has  power  to 
receive  dependent,  neglected  and  homeless  children;  to 
place  them  in  family  homes  or  in  institutions  after  they  have 
been  given  mental  and  physical  examinations ;  to  study  child 
dependency,  def ectiveness  and  delinquency ;  to  care  for  moth- 
ers ;  to  obtain  mothers'  pensions ;  to  investigate  the  cases  of 
tuberculous  children  who  need  care  and  to  place  such  chil- 
dren in  sanitariums ;  to  supervise  foster  homes ;  and  in  gen- 
eral to  look  after  the  welfare  of  dependent,  neglected,  home- 
less and  physically  defective  children.  It  is  not  responsible 
for  the  care  or  commitment  of  defective  or  delinquent  chil- 
dren, but  is  required  to  gather  data,  study  problems  and 
publish  statistics  relating  to  the  care  of  all  children  needing 
attention.  Upon  request,  agents  of  the  board  visit  paroled 
wards  of  the  state  schools  and  cooperate  with  parole  and 
probation  officers  and  deputy  sheriffs,  but  are  not  required 
to  perform  the  usual  duties  of  such  officers. 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  173 

The  executive  offices  of  the  board  are  in  Charleston  and 
the  state  appropriates  funds  for  its  expenses.  For  the  pur- 
poses of  its  work,  the  state  is  divided  into  nine  districts 
and  a  resident  agent  assigned  to  each.  Each  district  consists 
of  from  five  to  seven  counties,  and  one  district  of  five 
counties  contains  one  county  which  is  larger  than  the  state 
of  Delaware.  Most  of  the  travel  is  difficult  and  round- 
about ;  one  agent  has  to  spend  a  whole  day  from  8  a.  m.  to 
6.30  p.  m.  in  going  from  her  home  to  the  county  seat  of  one 
of  the  counties  of  her  district.  These  agents  have  to  travel 
long  distances  over  rough  roads,  they  are  allowed  only  $25 
a  month  for  expenses,  and  their  salaries  are  low,  but  never- 
theless they  are  without  exception  doing  more  work  than 
could  reasonably  be  expected  of  their  number.  They  are 
often  the  only  persons  available  in  the  open  country  for 
taking  care  of  the  classes  of  children  that  come  under  their 
jurisdiction. 

Among  factors  contributing  to  rural  dependency  are  sick- 
ness, ignorance,  inefficiency,  mismanagement,  mental  de- 
ficiency, licentiousness,  brutality,  immorality,  poverty,  acci- 
dent, death,  divorce  and  desertion.  Homes  are  broken; 
children  become  dependent  on  others  than  their  own  parents. 
Unofficially,  without  the  law,  they  are  placed  in  homes  of 
relatives,  neighbors,  friends,  strangers,  and  in  institutions. 
They  are  placed  on  agreement,  on  private  contract,  or  for 
accommodation,  by  a  parent,  relative,  physician,  hospital, 
Salvation  Army,  mission,  justice  of  peace,  probation  officer, 
police  matron,  club  woman,  or  private  citizen.  Officially, 
within  the  law,  they  are  placed  by  the  county  court  in  alms- 
houses,  in  each  instance  in  the  same  quarters  occupied  by  old 
men  and  women  and  mentally  deficient  inmates;  in  family 
homes ;  under  care  of  guardians ;  and  are  bound  out.  Law 
protects  property  rights,  but  does  not  always  protect  human 
rights.  Guardians  usually  guard  and  account  for  money 
and  ignore  children.  Officially,  the  circuit  court  makes 
children  wards  of  the  state,  when  physically  and  mentally 
sound  and  legally  subject  to  placement  in  foster  homes. 


174  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Out  of  270  children  from  broken  homes,  less  than  25  per  cent 
/have  been  reached  by  any  responsible  authority  such  as  the 
court,  probation  officer,  state  agent,  private  home-finding 
society,  orphanage,  or  any  official,  public  or  private. 
Forty-six  per  cent  have  lost  both  parents  through  death. 
The  largest  number  of  orphans  are  in  foster  homes ;  the 
largest  number  with  one  or  both  parents  living  are  in  hit-or- 
miss  homes;  many  are  tramp  children,  drifting  from  place 
to  place  without  permanent  care.  The  largest  number 
partially  supported  by  a  parent  are  with  relatives.  The  larg- 
est number  of  those  whose  mothers  have  deserted,  remarried 
or  who  for  any  reason  fail  to  keep  in  touch  with  them,  are 
received  into  foster  homes ;  while  most  of  the  children  whose 
fathers  have  deserted  or  fail  to  keep  in  touch  with  them 
are  in  hit-or-miss  homes  with  no  plan  for  permanent 
care.  Twenty-two  per  cent  of  the  children  in  foster  homes, 
with  a  living  parent,  know  nothing  of  the  parent's  where- 
abouts. The  largest  number  of  children  not  akin  are  found 
in  the  prosperous  farm  homes.  The  largest  number  over  16 
years  are  found  in  foster  homes. 

Dependent  children  are  not  receiving  the  minimum  educa- 
tion provided  as  required  by  law  in  their  localities.  Those 
in  foster  homes  attend  more  regularly  than  those  who  are 
with  relatives  or  in  hit-or-miss  homes.  Seven  per  cent  of 
those  with  relatives,  4  per  cent  of  those  in  foster  homes,  and 
38  per  cent  of  those  in  hit-or-miss  homes,  of  compulsory 
attendance  age,  are  not  attending  school  at  all.  Children 
are  received  in  farm  homes  varying  in  size  from  the  ances- 
tral farm  of  300  acres  to  the  half-acre  patch ;  whose  houses 
vary  from  that  with  furnace  and  bath  to  the  one-room  log 
cabin  with  lean-to  kitchen  and  the  isolated  tumble-down 
shack  without  a  window  and  without  a  floor.  Approxi- 
mately one-third  of  the  homes  have  no  toilet  facilities.  One- 
third  of  the  married  couples  caring  for  dependent  children 
are  classed  as  "aged,"  as  are  also  two-thirds  of  the  widows 
doing  so.  More  than  half,  or  57  per  cent,  of  the  homes 
provide  some  kind  of  reading  matter,  while  43  per  cent  have 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  175 

nothing  of  the  kind,  nor  is  anything  available  through  travel- 
ing library  or  the  school. 

Rural  children  born  out  of  wedlock  are  most  frequently 
born  in  their  mothers'  homes ;  of  72  such  children  found,  78 
per  cent  are  being  reared  by  their  mothers.  Reliable  in- 
formation regarding  the  paternity  of  one-third  of  these 
children  fixes  responsibility  about  equally  between  married 
men,  unmarried  neighbors  and  blood  relatives.  The  benefit 
of  prosecution  is  negative  and  unjust  in  that  the  public 
record  is  kept  over  the  mother's  affidavit.  The  ages  of  such 
mothers  vary  from  13  to  22  years,  with  the  largest  number 
14,  15,  1 6  and  17  years.  Eight  out  of  32  mothers  are 
"orphans"  reared  in  foster  homes.  Families  dependent  on 
public  and  private  charity  in  many  instances  are  not  provid- 
ing their  children  with  the  minimum  requirements  of  food, 
clothing,  shelter,  education,  religious  instruction,  work  and 
natural  play. 

In  case  of  sudden  disaster,  as  fire,  neighbors  for  miles 
around  send  supplies  and  money.  In  case  neighbors  believe 
parents  are  able  and  are  not  making  sufficient  effort,  children 
are  allowed  to  go  year  after  year  without  physical  care, 
without  medical  care  or  education.  Public  relief  is  not 
available  to  any  extent  to  rural  families  with  children. 
Mothers'  pensions  seldom  reach  rural  children.  Prosecution 
for  non-support  and  desertion  seldom  extends  beyond  fam- 
ilies having  easy  access  to  the  county  seat.  Youthful  mar- 
riages are  common.  Feeble-minded  adults  intermarry,  one 
generation  after  another,  without  interference  either  for  the 
protection  of  society  or  of  the  children.  Every  county  needs 
at  least  one  person  well  qualified  to  make  investigations 
among  rural  families ;  equipped  with  means  of  transportation 
most  practical  in  the  county;  paid  from  public  or  private 
funds  or  both;  responsible  for  the  care  of  all  dependent 
rural  children  in  the  county,  whether  living  with  relatives  in 
foster  homes,  in  hit-or-miss  homes,  bound  out,  in  alms- 
houses,  born  out  of  wedlock  or  living  in  their  own  family 
groups. 


176  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

CHILDREN   FROM   BROKEN    HOMES 

In  visiting  dependent  children  wherever  they  were,  we 
made  a  point  of  contact  with  the  place  they  called  "home." 
We  accepted  this  place  and  its  relation  to  the  children  as  a 
starting  point  for  observation  and  inquiry.  When  the  chil- 
dren had  been  separated  from  their  own  families,  we  did  not 
attempt  to  carry  the  investigation  back  into  all  circumstances 
incident  to  their  separation  but  recognized  this  fact  and 
accepted  it  as  evidence  of  a  home  broken.  We  found  270 
children  from  broken  homes  living  as  follows :  140  with  rela- 
tives; 81  in  foster  homes;  and  49  in  hit-or-miss  homes. 
Significant  factors  in  the  broken  and  the  new  homes  we 
discuss  later  under  (i)  social  status  of  parents,  (2)  persons 
responsible  for  placement,  (3)  length  of  time  in  homes,  (4) 
school  attendance,  (5)  home  conditions. 

With  Relatives.  Rural  folk  generally  are  alike  in  the 
warmth  of  their  hospitality  toward  homeless  children  though 
frequently  they  do  not  work  harmoniously  together  for  any 
common  economic  interest  in  their  neighborhood.  The  rela- 
tives— "kinsfolk" — are  first  to  receive  children  who  for  any 
reason  are  separated  from  their  own  parents.  Whether  they 
live  in  the  neighborhood  or  far  away,  children  are  taken 
into  their  homes  without  question  of  conditions,  size  of  fam- 
ily, financial  ability  to  assume  the  additional  burden,  or  the 
fitness  of  either  the  children  for  the  homes  or  the  homes 
for  the  children.  The  matter  of  blood  relationship  is  the 
determining  factor  and  overrides  every  other  consideration. 
If  there  are  no  relatives,  neighbors  open  their  homes,  again 
without  question,  and  for  so  long  a  time  as  the  children 
choose  to  remain.  One  hundred  and  forty  children  of  86 
families  are  living  with  relatives  in  97  homes.  Girls  out- 
number boys  by  four.  Grandparents  are  caring  for  by  far 
the  largest  number,  or  67  per  cent;  aunts  for  15  per  cent; 
uncles,  14  per  cent,  and  cousins,  4  per  cent.  The  spirit 
through  them  all  is  typified  in  the  story  of  Maxine's 
"Grandpap." 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  177 

"That's  where  my  grandpap  lives  and  my  poppy  run'd 
away  with  a  married  woman,  he  did,"  said  little  Maxine, 
age  7,  as  we  met  her  on  the  road  from  school  and  in- 
quired the  way  to  what  chanced  to  be  her  grandfather's 
home,  two  miles  from  the  county  seat.  We  found  a 
picturesque,  one-room  log  cabin,  about  12  by  18  feet, 
with  a  lean-to  kitchen  and  a  loft.  The  friendly  warmth 
from  the  big,  open  hearth  shed  a  soft  light  on  what 
seemed  a  myriad  of  faces  gathered  about.  We  counted 
eight  children  and  three  adults,  1 1  in  all ;  five  children 
under  seven  years  whose  mother  died  of  tuberculosis 
three  years  ago  and  whose  father,  one  year  later,  de- 
serted; their  mother's  sister,  in  an  advanced  stage  of 
tuberculosis,  who  with  her  two  children,  six  and  eight 
years,  came  home  for  care;  and  another  sister,  16  years, 
who  spends  much  of  her  time  with  her  invalid,  aged, 
paternal  grandparents  in  a  cabin  nearby.  These,  with 
Maxine's  grandfather  and  grandmother,  make  up  the 
group  of  ii.  The  grandfather,  able-bodied,  alert,  is 
deeply  devoted  to  his  kinsfolk.  The  grandmother, 
paralyzed,  is  unable  to  leave  her  chair.  The  little  home 
provides  four  double  beds,  two  in  the  living  room  and 
two  in  the  loft.  Water  is  carried  from,  a  spring  several 
yards  from  the  house.  The  sole  support  is  derived  from 
the  8o-acre  mountain  farm  and  an  old  gas  lease.  The 
adults  can  barely  read  and  write,  but  talk  intelligently 
of  preventing  the  spread  of  disease.  They  are  confident 
"the  children's  father  will  some  day  come  back,  will  want 
his  kids  and  won't  git  'em !" 

In  Foster  Homes.  From  interviews  with  foster  fathers 
and  mothers  caring  for  children  in  no  way  related  to  them, 
we  find  that  the  circumstances  under  which  the  children  are 
received  are  large  factors  in  shaping  plans  for  them.  Homes 
which  take  children  on  definite  arrangement  from  those 
legally  charged  with  their  custody  and  which  plan  for  legal 
adoption  or  for  rearing  them  as  members  of  the  family  with- 
out adoption,  we  refer  to  as  "foster  homes."  The  term, 
"hit-or-miss  homes"  is  coined  as  the  result  of  frequent  refer- 
ence to  children  as  tramps,  stopping  with  first  one  family, 


178  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

then  another,  no  one  accepting  responsibility  for  their  care 
with  definite  plans  for  the  future.  One  hundred  and  thirty 
children  representing  92  families  in  no  homes  are  clearly 
classified  in  the  two  groups.  In  foster  homes,  81  children 
of  68  families  are  in  64  homes.  In  hit-or-miss  homes,  49 
children  of  24  families  are  in  46  homes. 

The  existence  of  a  definite  plan  does  not  presuppose  any 
standard  of  excellence  in  the  foster  homes,  and  does  not 
assure  a  careful  selection  of  children  to  fit  the  homes.  It 
does  imply  a  certain  degree  of  responsibility  deliberately 
assumed  by  the  foster  fathers  and  mothers,  and  a  positive 
idea  of  care  for  the  children.  A  majority,  or  51  out  of  81, 
are  treated  in  every  respect  as  members  of  the  family. 
Thirty  have  either  already  been  adopted  or  will  be  later  if 
circumstances  warrant.  Through  records  of  Circuit  Courts, 
we  attempted  to  secure  data  as  to  the  number  of  children 
adopted  into  rural  families,  but  the  address  of  adoptive 
parents  is  seldom  made  a  matter  of  record,  so  it  is  necessary 
to  depend  on  the  memory  of  the  clerk  or  his  acquaintance 
with  the  families.  Incidentally,  reference  is  sometimes 
made  to  their  owning  or  living  on  a  farm  in  the  evidence 
presented  at  the  time  of  court  hearing.  From  records  avail- 
able and  findings  in  foster  homes,  we  are  confident  that  a 
much  larger  number  of  rural  children  are  reared  as  mem- 
bers of  families  than  are  adopted ;  that  public  sentiment  con- 
cerning adoption,  and  the  actual  adoption  vary  widely  in 
different  neighborhoods;  and  that  little  babies  are  seldom 
adopted  by  rural  families.  Common  misuse  of  the  word 
"adopted"  in  referring  to  any  foster  child  is  noted  in  the 
case  of  Annie: 

"I'm  nuthin'  but  a  pore  woman  as  ye  see,  but  every- 
thing I  have  is  for  Annie,"  said  the  widow,  Mrs.  Scott, 
who  with  Annie,  lives  on  her  12-acre  farm,  3^2  miles 
from  the  county  seat,  one  mile  from  the  school  and 
church.  Annie,  14,  is  spoken  of  in  the  neighborhood  as 
an  adopted  child.  No  legal  papers  have  been  drawn,  yet 
she  has  been  cared  for  by  the  Scotts  as  their  own  since 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  179 

she  was  one  year  old  and  when  Mr.  Scott  died  it  was 
found  that  he  had  named  her  in  his  will  as  sole  heir  to 
the  estate,  granting  Mrs.  Scott  the  use  of  it  during  her 
lifetime.  Left  an  orphan,  Annie  lived  with  an  aunt 
several  months  until  she  died,  then  was  taken  voluntarily 
by  the  Scotts.  The  comfortable,  five-room  frame  house 
is  old  but  in  good  repair,  plain  and  comfortably  fur- 
nished. Mrs.  Scott  rents  out  the  land  for  one-third  of 
the  crop  grown,  the  renter  furnishing  everything.  She 
owns  three  Jersey  cows,  one  horse,  a  few  chickens  and 
hogs.  She  kills  their  own  meat,  sells  butter,  raises  a  gar- 
den and  gathers  wild  fruits  from  the  mountains.  She 
is  ignorant,  but  eager  for  Annie  to  "git  larnin'."  She 
subscribes  to  a  weekly  paper  and  to  a  church  magazine. 
Annie  has  reached  the  sixth  grade  but  is  not  enough  of 
a  student  to  prepare  for  teaching.  With  the  visitor, 
Mrs.  Scott  eagerly  talked  over  a  number  of  plans  for 
her  future. 

Children  in  foster  homes  show  something  of  the  extent 
to  which  agencies  outside  the  family  are  reaching  rural 
children  and  taking  responsibility  for  placing  them  in  farm 
homes.  A  larger  number  of  children  than  in  any  other 
group  were  taken  at  the  request  of  those  not  akin.  Out  of 
8 1  children,  12  were  taken  at  the  request  of  a  private  home- 
finding  society;  12  at  the  request  of  the  state;  7  of  an 
orphanage;  15  at  the  request  of  the  mother;  5  each  at  the 
request  of  the  father,  the  court,  and  overseer  of  the  poor; 
4  at  the  request  of  a  probation  officer;  6  are  unknown;  3 
each  were  taken  at  the  request  of  a  friend,  a  club  woman  and 
a  mission ;  and  one  at  the  request  of  a  justice  of  the  peace. 
Doubtless  these  agencies  account  for  the  definite  arrange- 
ment and  plans  in  many  instances.  Those  long  experienced 
in  home-finding  confirm  our  observations  that  families  more 
quickly  accept  the  responsibility  for  children  who  are  with- 
out homes  than  for  those  who  have  already  been  transferred 
to  a  receiving  home  or  to  an  orphanage.  The  appeals  of 
mothers  or  of  neighbors  to  take  helpless  children  and  rear 
them  as  their  own  are  not  easily  ignored,  and  agreements  to 


i8o  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

care  for  them  frequently  prove  as  binding  as  an  order  of 
court. 

Hit-or-Miss  Homes. 

Miss  Johnson,  teacher  of  Hog  Knob  one-room  school, 
four  miles  from  the  county  seat,  incidentally  mentioned 
that  Herman  Myers,  7,  came  to  school  ragged  and  un- 
kempt; that  a  brother,  William,  12,  had  been  dropped 
from  the  roll  when  he  went  to  a  family  over  the  moun- 
tain ;  and  that  the  mother  was  trying  to  find  a  home  for 
Herman.  Following  an  uncertain  road  along  the  bed 
of  a  stream,  crossing  and  recrossing,  now  on  a  swing- 
ing bridge,  now  on  a  log,  or  stepping  from  stone  to 
stone,  we  found  the  mother  of  Herman  and  William 
keeping  house  for  an  aged  couple.  Herman  was  not  in 
school  because  William  was  expected  home  and  the 
mother  was  hoping  to  send  Herman  back  to  the  country 
with  him.  Poor  little  Herman  could  scarcely  breathe, 
so  full  was  his  throat  of  diseased  tonsils,  apparent  even 
to  a  layman.  The  mother  said  she  "  'lowed  he  breathed 
all  right,  never  noticed  anything  wrong." 

But  William's  new  home  is  our  story.  One  day  when 
in  the  village,  Mrs.  Myers  stopped  at  the  home  of  Rosa 
Staubs  on  Piedmont  Street.  There  she  met  Liza 
Stuckey,  a  neighbor  of  Mrs.  Staubs.  Mrs.  Myers  spoke 
of  her  desire  to  find  a  home  for  William,  of  the  father's 
death  three  years  ago,  and  her  inability  to  support  and 
control  the  boys.  Mrs.  Stuckey,  a  stranger,  had  just 
moved  to  town  from  "beyond  yon  mountain."  She  told 
Mrs.  'Myers  she  knew  of  a  farmer  who  wanted  a  boy  of 
about  William's  age,  that  she  was  going  back  to  her 
old  neighborhood  on  a  visit  soon,  and  would  be  glad  to 
take  William  along.  If  the  farmer  liked  him,  he  could 
stay ;  if  not,  she  could  bring  him  back.  So,  in  due  time, 
William  went  over  the  mountain  with  the  woman,  whose 
name  and  address  the  mother  did  not  have,  to  a  farmer 
whose  name  she  did  not  know.  In  fact,  all  she  did  know 
was  the  name  of  Mrs.  Staubs,  her  friend,  and  the  name 
of  the  street  on  which  she  lived.  A  house  to  house 
search  along  the  village  street  brought  us  to  Mrs.  Staubs 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  181 

who  saFd  she  knew  nothing  of  Mrs.  Stuckey,  had  met 
her  but  two  weeks  before,  and  had  never  heard  of  the 
farmer,  whose  name  she  thought  was  Newton  Fry.  Wil- 
liam's mother  does  not  appear  in  any  way  to  be  below 
the  average  ignorant  woman.  She  is  fond  of  her  boys 
and  yet  is  satisfied  with  this  method  of  rinding  homes 
for  the  children  she  is  unable  to  support. 

If  William  were  the  only  rural  child  whose  future  were 
at  stake  in  such  a  gamble,  the  story  of  hit-or-miss  homes 
would  not  need  to  be  written.  But  there  are  large  numbers 
of  children  for  whom  homes  are  chosen  with  no  more  care 
than  in  William's  case.  We  found  49  children  representing 
24  families  in  46  hit-or-miss  homes. 

A  larger  number,  no  one  knows  how  many,  drift  from 
one  home  to  another,  no  one  assuming  responsibility  for 
permanent  care,  while  many  children  tramp  for  weeks  or 
even  months  at  a  time — not  for  the  sake  of  adventure — but 
because  they  have  no  home.  Tramp  children  are  not  at  all 
uncommon  in  the  rural  communities  covered  in  this  study. 

Annie,  age  14,  is  typical  of  a  distressingly  large  num- 
ber of  such  children.  In  March  we  found  her  at  Grape- 
vine attending  school  for  the  first  time  in  her  life.  She 
lives  with  Granny  McCauley  a  mile  and  a  half  up  the 
hollow.  As  we  walked  home  with  her  after  school,  her 
story  ran  something  like  this:  with  three  younger  sis- 
ters, she  lived  in  a  one-room  mountain  cabin ;  the  mother 
died  a  year  ago ;  the  father,  never  a  good  provider,  fre- 
quently deserted  during  the  lifetime  of  the  mother. 
Just  before  last  Christmas  he  left  early  one  morning, 
presumably  for  the  village  nine  miles  away,  and  did  not 
return.  The  supply  of  food  became  exhausted.  The 
fuel  gave  out  and  the  children  gathered  more  from  the 
mountain  side.  Meanwhile,  a  heavy  snow  had  fallen. 
Rather  reluctantly,  Annie  admitted  she  was  afraid  be- 
cause there  were  so  many  lonely  graves  scattered  about, 
but  did  not  dare  let  her  sisters  think  so.  At  the  end  of 
the  fourth  day,  she  took  the  children  to  a  neighbor 
where  they  stayed  a  couple  of  days,  while  the  man  of 


182  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

the  house  made  inquiry  regarding  her  father.  Hear- 
ing nothing,  Annie  returned  to  the  cabin,  rolled  their 
meager  supply  of  clothing  together,  and  started  with  her 
three  little  sisters  over  the  mountain  to  a  friend  of  the 
mother.  It  was  nearly  dark  when  they  arrived  at  the 
friend's  cabin,  only  to  find  the  doors  locked,  no  fire 
and  no  tracks  on  the  fresh  snow.  They  trudged  on 
about  half  a  mile  and  spent  the  night  with  a  neighbor. 
For  three  weeks  they  tramped,  never  staying  more  than 
one  night  in  any  place.  Annie  had  no  definite  point  in 
mind  but  a  very  clearly  defined  idea  that  she  was  re- 
sponsible for  finding  a  home  where  they  could  stay  to- 
gether. They  drifted  into  a  neighboring  county  where 
a  man  put  them  on  the  train  with  tickets  to  their  own 
county  seat.  They  arrived  about  9.30  at  night;  the 
conductor  left  them  in  charge  of  the  station  master  and 
sent  for  the  sheriff  who  took  them  to  the  jail  for  the 
night.  The  following  day,  he  sent  word  to  the  county 
probation  officer  nine  miles  in  the  country.  They  stayed 
with  the  sheriff  three  or  four  days,  while  the  women  of 
the  town  provided  them  with  new  clothing,  the  sheriff 
and  prosecuting  attorney  searched  for  the  father,  and 
the  kindly  probation  officer  found  them  homes,  as  he 
said,  "so  they  wouldn't  have  to  go  to  no  orphan  asylum." 

The  Responsibility  of  Guardians.  Law  based  on  property 
rights  does  not  always  function  to  protect  children  from 
neglect. 

Six  children  under  14  years,  left  orphans  last  Sep- 
tember through  the  death  of  their  father,  have  an  estate 
valued  at  less  than  $200.  Some  one  in  due  form  peti- 
tioned the  county  officials  to  appoint  an  administrator 
to  care  for  the  $200  and  pay  any  bills.  These  officials 
knew  the  children  were  left  without  responsible  friends, 
yet  claimed  they  had  no  authority  to  appoint  a  guardian 
of  the  person  for  them  unless  duly  petitioned  according 
to  law.  Six  months  after  the  father's  death,  we  found 
the  six  children  in  five  homes,  all  unsatisfactory,  and 
none  able  or  desirous  of  keeping  the  children  perma- 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  183 

nently.  One  man  said,  "You  see,  Miss,  we  can't  give 
Tom  the  raisin'  he  ought  to  have;  we  just  took  him  for 
accommodation  and  now  can't  get  the  'guardeen'  to  do 
anything  for  him."  He  confused  "administrator"  with 
"guardian,"  for  no  guardian  had  been  appointed.  Two 
of  the  children  are  with  an  aged  aunt,  mother  of  II 
children,  five  of  whom  died  in  infancy.  She  lives  in  a 
two-room  log  cabin  with  a  lean-to'  kitchen  and  is  giving 
the  children  the  best  she  has.  The  cabin  already  houses 
three  adults,  three  children  and  a  i6-year-old  girl  men- 
tally defective,  awaiting  maternity,  supported  by  the 
county  at  the  rate  of  $5  a  week.  This  is  the  "hit-or- 
miss  home"  of  two  of  Tom's  sisters,  neither  is  attending 
school,  and  no  one  except  the  attendance  officer  is  very 
much  distressed. 

Because  of  the  frequency  with  which  we  found  children 
having  guardians  who  took  no  responsibility  for  their  care, 
we  compiled  information  regarding  37  children  who  have 
estates  varying  from  $12  to  $300.  In  every  instance,  the 
children  are  dependent  for  all  practical  purposes;  and  yet 
for  food,  shelter,  clothing,  education — in  fact,  for  all  things — 
less  than  20  per  cent  of  the  guardians  are  giving  any  thought 
to  planning  for  them,  their  present  needs,  or  preparation 
for  the  future.  Out  of  the  37  children,  23  have  lost  both 
parents  through  death.  Guardians  who  have  made  plans 
for  the  children  either  took  them  into  their  own  homes  or 
sent  them  to  relatives.  But  80  per  cent  of  the  guardians, 
including  high  officials  and  humble  neighbors,  pay  no  atten- 
tion to  what  becomes  of  the  children.  Local  officials  con- 
firm our  findings  and  many  of  the  guardians  admit 
that  they  accepted  the  appointment  with  no  thought  other 
than  to  act  legally  in  any  business  transaction  and  to  account 
for  the  meager  funds.  The  small  fee  allowed  by  court  for 
such  service  pays  in  a  limited  sense  for  the  trouble,  and  they 
would  not  consider  taking  responsibility  for  the  children 
themselves.  A  judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  offered  to  take  a 


184  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

12-year-old  girl  into  his  family,  send  her  to  school  and 
train  her  as  a  nurse  maid,  but  refused  to  act  as  guardian  and 
bind  himself  for  her  future.  We  interviewed  the  guardian 
of  three  children.  He  had  taken  the  boy,  12,  into  his  own 
home  and  later  had  him  committed  to  the  State  Industrial 
School.  The  other  two  have  been  in  seven  different  homes 
in  four  years.  The  guardian  of  an  n-year-old  girl, 
known  to  the  officials  as  irresponsible,  a  wife  beater  and  a 
deserter,  took  the  girl  into  his  home  for  three  years,  then 
ran  away  with  her.  His  family,  the  wife  and  five  children, 
are  receiving  aid  from  public  and  private  philanthropy  with 
no  effort  to  prosecute  or  apprehend  the  deserter. 

Significant  Factors. — SOCIAL  STATUS  OF  PARENTS.  The 
orphan  bereft  of  both  parents  by  death  is  present  among 
rural  dependent  children,  but  is  outnumbered  by  children 
with  one  or  both  parents  living.  The  three  groups,  totalling 
270  children  from  broken  homes,  are  a  significant  com- 
mentary on  the  stability  of  34  American  families.  Forty-six 
per  cent  of  the  270  children  have  lost  both  parents  through 
death;  13  per  cent  have  both  parents  living;  23  per  cent, 
mothers  only;  and  17  per  cent  fathers  only;  while  one  per 
cent  is  unknown.  The  smallest  number  of  orphans  live 
with  relatives,  and  the  largest  number  with  foster  parents. 
The  smallest  number  with  both  parents  living  are  in  foster 
homes,  and  the  largest  number  in  hit-or-miss  homes.  A  sur- 
prisingly large  number  either  live  with  or  are  partially  sup- 
ported by  a  parent.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  parent  to  con- 
tinue support  of  the  children  after  remarriage  and  yet  not 
take  them  into  the  new  home.  Often  this  is  due  to  an  un- 
willingness on  the  part  of  the  relatives  to  give  up  the  chil- 
dren to  whom  they  have  become  attached.  More  frequently, 
it  is  due  to  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the  new  parent  to 
accept  responsibility  for  the  children  in  the  new  home. 

It  is  not  unusual  for  parents  to  fail  to  keep  in  touch  with 
their  children  yet  not  abandon  them.  Once  or  more  during 
a  year  they  write,  visit  or  send  gifts.  In  this  sense,  the 
whereabouts  of  many  were  not  known  at  the  time  of  our 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY 


185 


CHART  I 


Dependent  Children  from  Broken  Homes  Living  with  Relatives, 
Foster  Parents  or  Others,  by  Number,  Sex,  and  Parents  Liv- 
ing or  Dead 


0 

Sex 
(Per- 
centage) 

Living  Parents 
(Percentage) 

1*3 
1 

I 

u 

b 

c 

II 

O 

ll 

11 

M 

i     With  relatives  

140 
81 
49 

49 
66 

43 

51 

34 
57 

23 

14 
6 

34 
15 

13 
4 

22 

O 

3 

3 

30 
64 
61 

2     In  foster  homes  

3.    In  hit-or-miss  homes. 

CHART  i — Continued 

Children  Who  Have  Living  Fathers  Who  Have  Deserted  or  Re- 
married, Who  Partially  Support  Them  or  Are  in  Prison  or 
Blind 


PERCENTAGE  OF 

Number  of 
Children 

Fathers 
Deserted 

Remarried 

Partially 
Support 

i 

£ 

a 

M 

I 

5 

Unknown 

i.    With  relatives  .. 

140 

45 

15 

38 

2 

o 

0 

2.    In  foster  homes. 

8l 

7 

22 

14 

7 

28 

22 

3.    In  hit  -  or  -  miss 

homes  

49 

78 

8 

0 

0 

o 

14 

CHART  i — Continued 

Children  Who  Have  Living  Mothers  Who  Have  Deserted  or  Re- 
married, Who  Partially  Support  Them  or  Are  Insane 


PER 

CENTAGE 

OF 

o 

•« 

W,  *3 

w^ 

.2 

|3 

II 

1? 

Sfl 

IB 
II 

Remarr 

y 
si 

Pnc/3 

1 

a 

i.    With   relatives    

1  40 

18 

65 

8 

2.    In  foster  homes  

81 

7 

27 

4O 

7 

IQ 

3.    In  hit-or-miss  homes  .  . 

49 

.0 

14 

21 

O 

5 

i86 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


visit.  Children  living  with  relatives  keep  in  closer  touch 
with  their  parents  as  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  addresses 
of  all  were  known  except  in  cases  of  abandonment. 

PERSONS  RESPONSIBLE  FOR  PLACEMENT.  The  question  as 
to  who  is  responsible  for  finding  homes  for  rural  children 
separated  from  their  own  families  is  answered  as  far  as 
this  study  is  concerned.  Over  half,  or  136  of  the  270  chil- 
dren from  broken  homes,  were  taken  into  the  new  homes 
at  the  request  of  relatives.  Less  than  one-fourth,  or  63, 
were  taken  at  the  request  of  authoritative  persons  aside 
from  relatives ;  of  these,  only  12  were  taken  at  the  request  of 
a  private  home-finding  society,  12  at  the  request  of  the  state, 
and  7  of  orphanages. 


CHART  II 


Dependent  Children  from  Broken  Homes  Taken  by  Relatives,  Fos- 
ter Parents  and  Others;  at  the  Request  of  Parents  and  Others 


Number 

PERCENTAGE  TAKEN  AT  THE  REQUEST  OF 

i 

1 

1 

Private 
Society 

Orphanage 

1 

•§ 
1 

i.    With  relatives   

140 
81 
49 

50 
19 
23 

15 
6 

4 

0 

O 
O 

0 

9 

0 

o 

15 

0 

29 

5 
23 

2.    In  foster  homes  

3.    In  hit-or-miss  homes. 

CHART  ii — Continued 


PERCENTAGE   TAKEN   AT  THE   REQUEST  OF 


ll 

V 

• 

B 

.c 

e 

•5 

IH 

1 

o 

c 

0 

g 

"o 

1 

8 

UJ 

OJ  v 

.2 

*O 

o  v 

.a 

P 

J3  0 

B 

0 

£o 

a 

i 

o 

11 

1 

C/J 

i     With  relatives              . 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

2     In  foster  homes 

6 

e 

A 

4 

o 

2 

4 

o 

3.    In  hit-or-miss  homes. 

0 

O 

12 

T- 

O 

*T 

0 

4 

0 

18 

16 

RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY 


187 


LENGTH  OF  TIME  IN  HOMES.  Children  who  become  a 
permanent  part  of  the  family  life  in  their  new  homes,  have 
much  better  opportunity  for  education,  training  and  normal 
child  life.  Taken  as  a  whole,  15  per  cent  of  them  have  been 
in  the  homes  less  than  one  year;  53  per  cent  from  one  to 
four  years ;  18  per  cent  from  five  to  10  years ;  and  14  per 
cent  over  10  years.  Children  remain  for  about  the  same 
length  of  time  with  relatives  as  in  foster  homes.  A  dis- 
tressingly large  number  have  been  in  hit-or-miss  homes  less 
than  one  year. 

CHART    III 

Length  of  Residence  with  Relatives,  Foster  Parents  or  Others  of 
Dependent  Children  from  Broken  Homes 


PERCENT; 

IGE   IN    Ho 

ME   FOR 

c 

c 

1 

ss 

Tf^ 

0 

h 

§ 

& 

5  rt 

3  «« 

o 

K 

M>4 

*t» 

S2 

i    With  relatives   

1  4.0 

6 

CC 

25 

2.  In    foster   homes    

81 

6 

II 

19 

14 

3.  In    hit-or-miss    homes. 

49 

52 

43 

4 

I 

SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE.  It  is  not  surprising  to  find  the 
largest  percentage  of  children  of  pre-school  age  living  with 
relatives,  for  loyalty  to  kinsfolk  does  not  discriminate  in  favor 
of  older  children.  As  to  number,  82  are  of  pre-school  age 
(under  seven  years)  ;  159  are  of  compulsory  attendance  age, 
(7  to  15)  ;  and  29  are  over  16.  Briefly,  this  is  the  situation 
as  to  ages;  relatives  care  for  the  smallest  number  over  16, 
foster  homes  the  largest  number  of  school  age,  and  the 
smallest  number  of  pre-school  age. 

If  one  child  more  than  another  needs  opportunity  for  edu- 
cation, it  is  the  dependent  child  who  frequently  must  make 
his  way  alone  in  the  world.  It  is  generally  agreed  that  chil- 
dren from  homes  broken  by  death,  disease,  lack  of  character, 
mismanagement  or  from  whatever  cause,  are  from  one  to 


i88 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


three  years  behind  grade.  Aside  from  questions  of  mental 
ability,  it  is  conceded  that  regular  attendance  even  for  a 
shorter  term  contributes  more  to  children's  training  than 
can  ever  be  hoped  for  from  irregular  attendance.  It  is 
deplorable  that  after  rural  children  become  dependent,  they 
are  not  receiving  education  as  required  by  law  in  their  locali- 
ties; indeed,  the  chart  shows  that  29  per  cent  in  hit-or-miss 
homes  have  never  attended  school. 


CHART  IV 


Dependent  Children  from  Broken  Homes  Living  with  Relatives, 
Foster  Parents  and  Others,  by  Age,  Groups,  and  School  At- 
tendance of  School-Age  Group 


AGE    BY    PER- 
CENTAGE 

PERCENTAGE  ATTENDING 

1 

£ 

u 

• 

o 

• 

d 

E 

1 

•g 

CO 

i 

M 

•0 

3 

1 

• 

0 

fe 

E 

I 

a 

fc 

PH 

«•* 

(4 

M 

^ 

^ 

^ 

I.    With  relatives    .. 
2.    In  foster  homes  . 
homes  , 

140 
81 

40 
22 

55 
59 

5 
19 

58 
81 

29 
II 

7 
4 

o 

0 

6 

4 

In  hit-or-miss 

49 

16 

70 

14 

9 

53 

9 

29 

0 

HOME  CONDITIONS.  What  kind  of  rural  homes  take  de- 
pendent children  of  broken  families?  Considerable  range 
of  variety  is  found  in  63  homes  visited  by  the  writer.  It  is 
of  no  value  to  class  them  as  "good,"  "fair,"  or  "bad"; 
"satisfactory"  or  "unsatisfactory."  These  are  relative 
terms  with  no  generally  accepted  basis  for  evaluation.  Cer- 
tain physical  surroundings  lend  themselves  to  interpreta- 
tion and  are  of  limited  value  in  determining  home  conditions. 
Physical  surroundings  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  a  com- 
fortable, pleasant,  decent  abiding-place  do  not  reflect  the 
spirit  in  the  home ;  the  understanding  and  deep-seated  love 
for  children ;  high  ideals  for  development  of  character  or  of 
strong  bodies  and  minds ;  the  relation  of  sons  and  daughters 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  189 

to  the  dependent  child;  and  a  multitude  of  other  factors 
determining  fitness  or  unfitness  as  foster  homes.  An  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  all  elements  in  the  home  requires  a  long 
period  of  observation  and  supervision,  and  then  mistakes 
are  possible. 

One  foster  mother  who  recently  took  the  third  child 
from  a  home-finding  society  and  said  she  wanted  another, 
may  be  a  good  mother  but  showed  poor  judgment  in  at 
least  one  respect.  During  our  conversation  in  her  "settin* 
room,"  little  dark-haired,  dark-eyed  Virginia,  age  nine, 
came  home  from  school.  The  foster  mother  remarked, 
"This  is  the  little  orphan  we  got  last  time.  We  wanted 
a  boy,  but  Mr.  Blank  didn't  have  one  so  we  took  this 
'un,  and  I  told  him  if  I  had  to  take  a  girl  I  wanted  one 
with  light  hair  and  blue  eyes  so  I  could  dress  her  up 
pretty,  and  this  is  what  I  got."  Virginia  dropped  into 
a  little  rocking  chair  at  the  farthest  side  of  the  room, 
her  large  eyes  questioning,  pleading,  and  watching  every 
move  her  new-found  mother  made. 

Out  of  63  foster  parents,  37  are  farm  owners,  14  renters 
and  12  squatters;  26  of  their  houses  are  built  of  logs,  28  are 
frame,  4  log  and  frame,  4  brick,  and  one  is  a  slab  shack. 
The  number  of  rooms  to  a  family  averages  five,  the  number 
of  persons  to  a  family  of  5.1.  Water  supply  is  obtained  for 
38  families  from  wells;  22  from  springs;  and  3  from 
streams ;  3  have  water  piped  into  the  house.  Toilet  accom- 
modations are  provided  on  43  farms  and  on  20  no  provision 
is  made.  Forty-eight  households  are  presided  over  by  man 
and  wife,  16  of  whom  are  classed  as  aged  couples;  15  are 
homes  of  widows,  10  of  whom  are  classed  as  aged.  In  36 
homes  reading  matter  of  some  description  is  found  such  as 
a  weekly  paper,  "Farm  and  Fireside,"  "Chicago  Ledger," 
"Youth's  Companion,"  or  a  monthly  religious  publication; 
and  12  have  sufficient  number  of  books  to  be  called  a  library. 
In  27  homes  there  is  nothing  to  read.  In  answer  to  our 
inquiry  as  to  what  the  children  had  to  read,  one  foster  father 
of  two  boys  remarked,  "Sometimes  I  get  a  funny  paper 


RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

a'purpose  for  'em."  An  old  woman,  commonly  called 
"Granny,"  laboriously  climbed  a  ladder  to  the  loft,  and 
brought  down  a  large  volume  of  "The  New  Knowledge  Li- 
brary," for  which  she  paid  $6.50,  saying  proudly,  "When 
the  boys  learn  everything  in  this  book,  they'll  know  a  heap, 
won't  they?"  Four  orphans  stand  to  her  credit  for  she 
"never  turns  an  orphan  away." 

CHILDREN  BOUND   OUT  AND  ON    CONTRACT 

The  clerk  of  the  county  court  in  an  old,  wealthy  and  pro- 
gressive county,  told  the  writer  in  a  matter-of-fact  way  that 
when  a  family  of  children  is  in  need  of  county  aid,  the  parents 
are  sent  to  the  almshouse  and  the  children  bound  out.  From 
the  file-room  he  brought  massive  "order  books"  and  took  con- 
siderable pains  to  show  us  how  the  records  of  apprenticed 
children  were  indexed.  We  found  the  latest  order  entered 
in  1918.  It  reads : 

"It  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  that  said , 

age  5^2,  be  and  is  hereby  bound  as  an  apprentice  to  the 

said until  he  arrives  at  the  age  of  21  years,  and 

the  Court  does  further  order  that  the  said shall 

be  by  the  said  master  or  his  direction,  and  expense, 
instructed  in  some  useful  trade,  art,  business  and  shall 
be  taught  reading,  writing  and  common  arithmetic,  the 

said shall  also,  during  the  time  aforesaid  find, 

provide  and  allow  unto  the  said  apprentice  sufficient 
meat,  drink,  washing,  comfortable  apparel  and  lodging 
and  other  things  needful,  necessary  and  meet  for  an 

apprentice,  and  when  the  said arrives  at  the  age 

of  21,  the  said  will  pay  unto  him  the  sum  of 

$50.00  the  payment  of  which  is  secured  by  a  bond  of 

$100.00  considered  according  to  law  with  as 

his  surety  and  made  out  in  due  form  of  law  which  said 
bond  is  hereby  approved." 

The  boy's  mother,  left  a  widow,  was  not  able  to 
support  her  child.  Born  out  of  wedlock,  she  had  been 
reared  by  the  master,  who  in  the  sense  of  a  grand- 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  191 

parent,  accepted  the  care  of  her  child.  We  found  the 
boy  of  the  third  generation  born  out  of  wedlock,  now 
eight  years,  attending  school  regularly,  doing  average 
work  in  the  second  grade.  His  clothing  was  well 
patched  but  clean.  Hands  and  face  showed  dirt  of 
several  days'  accumulation.  The  school  room  was  over- 
crowded and  his  growing  legs  were  cramped  under  a 
seat  much  too  small.  There  are  three  grown  sons  away 
from  home  and  two  relatives,  one  a  cripple,  making  their 
home  with  the  master.  Though  illiterate,  they  are 
kindly  people,  attend  "gospel  services"  in  the  school 
house  two  miles  distant  once  in  four  weeks.  They  have 
a  very  comfortable  living  from  the  I25~acre  farm  and 
the  seven-room  fiouse  is  all  in  use  every  day. 

Two  negro  children  were  apprenticed  to  a  negro 
farmer.  A  girl  referred  to  as  a  "yallow  gal"  was  ap- 
prenticed to  a  white  family.  Her  record  reads,  " , 

9,   has   become   chargeable   to   the   county.     Shall   be 

bound  and  put  out  to ,  until  18 ."    The  girl 

was  to  be  instructed  in  house  work  and  was  to  "well 

and  faithfully  serve  the  said  in  such  business 

as  shall  be  confided  to  her."  The  record  at  the  court- 
house does  not  state  how  the  girl  became  chargeable  to 
the  county,  but  in  looking  through  the  books  at  the 
almshouse  we  found  record  of  her  birth  and  that  of  her 
three  sisters.  The  matron  reported  two  others  buried 
in  the  cemetery  on  the  county  farm.  We  saw  the  girl's 
mother  at  the  almshouse,  her  story  familiar  a  genera- 
tion ago :  feeble-minded,  unmarried,  resident  of  the  aims- 
house  40  years,  mother  of  six  children  born  in  the  aims- 
house!  The  girl  and  her  three  sisters  were  placed  in 
family  homes  by  the  county  commissioners  because  they 
were  "chargeable  to  the  county." 

Two  brothers,  n  and  7  years  of  age,  were  appren- 
ticed in  1918  to  a  resident  of  an  adjoining  county  and 
a  bond  of  $1,000  required  of  the  master  by  the  county 
court,  as  the  commissioners  are  called.  Through  an 
error  in  indexing,  we  were  not  able  at  first  to  find  the 
record  of  the  proceedings,  hence  we  visited  the  home  of 
the  master  without  knowing  anything  of  the  boys'  his- 


192  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

tory.  "Break  over  the  mountain  and  drop  off  Goose 
Neck,"  said  the  livery  man  as  he  directed  us  to  the  100- 
acre  farm  15  miles  from  a  railrad.  We  found  the 
boys,  now  14  and  10,  at  home  helping  to  butcher  three 
hogs  for  the  family's  use.  The  master,  an  illiterate, 
rough  farmer  and  lumberman,  talked  freely  about  the 
boys  and  their  place  in  his  home.  As  he  expressed  it, 
he  had  "adopted  them  through  the  court;  their  father 
had  a  lawye'r  and  fit  me  hard,  but  I  paid  all  the  costs  and 
got  the  boys.  Their  mother  worries  me  right  smart 
awantin'  to  see  'em  onct  every  week,  but  she's  jus'  a 
pore  wummin  and  can't  manage  boys."  Last  year,  he 
allowed  them  to  go  with  her  to  visit  relatives  and  they 
were  gone  nearly  three  weeks;  he  feared  that  they 
would  not  come  back  and  that  he  would  not  only  lose 
the  boys,  but  forfeit  the  $1,000  bond.  Briefly  the  story 
of  the  two  brothers  is  this :  The  father  and  mother  lived 
for  several  years  on  a  2-acre  patch  about  two  miles 
from  the  village.  The  father,  a  laborer,  worked  some- 
times in  the  quarries,  and  sometimes  in  town.  He  was 
never  a  good  provider  and  changed  jobs  frequently. 
The  mother,  in  addition  to  caring  for  the  boys  and  her 
aged  mother,  went  out  "by  the  day"  or  "took  in  wash- 
ings." After  the  death  of  the  boys'  grandmother,  be- 
cause of  non-support,  desertion  and  lack  of  harmony, 
the  mother  took  the  children  and  left  their  father,  never 
to  return.  She  rented  rooms  in  town  and  attempted  to 
support  herself  and  the  children.  The  family  was 
known  to  officials  and  residents  of  the  village,  yet  no 
effort  was  made  through  law  or  otherwise  to  help  ad- 
just matters  in  the  family  for  the  protection  or  the  sup- 
port of  the  children.  The  mother  heard  of  a  farmer 
who  wanted  "some  boys"  and,  without  visiting  his  home 
or  seeing  his  wife  and  family,  she  petitioned  the  court 
to  apprentice  both  boys  to  him — their  present  master. 
She  said  to  the  writer,  "If  anybody  had  ever  helped  me, 
I'd  never  have  given  up  my  children.  And  now  they 
say  I  can't  ever  get  'em  back."  In  due  form  the  case 
came  before  the  county  commissioners.  The  mother 
and  the  master  appeared  with  an  attorney.  The  father 
appeared  with  an  attorney  who  told  the  writer  he  ob- 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  193 

jected  to  apprenticing  the  boys  because  the  master  was 
not  a  resident  of  the  county  and  was  not  a  suitable 
person  to  have  them.  He  asked  the  court  that  the  mat- 
ter be  dismissed,  but  the  boys  were  bound  out  as  re- 
quested. The  master  is  required  to  pay  each  boy  the 
sum  of  $100  when  he  becomes  of  age,  and  to  provide  for 
him  as  set  forth  in  the  statute. 

School  records  show  the  older  boy  has  not  attended 
school  for  two  years  and  has  reached  the  fourth  grade. 
The  younger  boy  attended  irregularly  last  vear,  is  at- 
tending regularly  this  year,  and  is  in  the  first  grade. 
The  nearest  school,  il/2  miles,  has  no  teacher  this  year, 
and  it  is  only  by  permission  of  the  teacher  in  an  ad- 
joining district  who  knows  the  circumstances  surround- 
ing the  children  that  they  are  allowed  to  attend  the 
already  overcrowded  school  nearly  2^2-  miles  distant. 
The  master  provides  no  reading  matter  at  home  and 
his  family  is  illiterate.  The  four-room  log  cabin  with 
a  frame  addition  is  poorly  furnished  but  clean  and  or- 
derly. The  master  operates  a  portable  sawmill  and 
said  "the  boys  pick  up  a  heap  of  money  around  the  mill 
when  they  don't  go  to  school."  He  favors  school  dur- 
ing the  summer  months  when  "boys  ain't  good  for 
nuthin'  else."  Because  of  frequent  reference  to  the 
master  as  unfit  to  train  the  boys,  we  consulted  the  court 
and  Justice  of  Peace  dockets  and  found  that  his  brother 
frequently  violates  law  and  is  known  in  the  county  for 
having  served  a  term  in  the  state  penitentiary.  The  man 
to  whom  the  little  boys  are  bound  because  their  father 
could  not  furnish  $300  bond  "at  once,1'  bears  the  repu- 
tation of  being  honest  because  he  pays  his  debts,  igno- 
rant and  rough.  The  boys'  mother  frequently  walks 
the  15  miles  to  visit  them.  The  father  lives  with  his 
own  relatives  in  the  vicinity. 

We  believe  the  action  of  the  county  commissioners 
was  illegal  because  the  law  requires  the  father  to  file  a 
petition  for  apprenticing  a  child,  and  at  no  time  was 
the  welfare  of  the  children  given  consideration.  The 
circumstances  under  which  the  boys  were  apprenticed 
were  equivalent  to  forcibly  removing  them  from  their 
parents,  a  matter  of  such  vital  importance  as  to  require 


194  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

action  only  by  a  juvenile  court,  in  this  instance,  the 
Circuit  Court.  The  children  were  denied  the  right  of 
a  hearing  in  the  juvenile  court.  Had  their  father's 
petition  not  been  overruled,  the  judge  of  the  Circuit 
Court  might  have  made  a  thorough  inquiry  into  all  the 
facts,  and  if  he  had  found  it  for  the  best  to  remove 
them  from  the  custody  of  both  their  father  and  mother, 
he  would  have  had  authority  to  enter  such  an  order. 
Following  this,  the  same  Court  would  have  had  power 
to  determine  whether  the  master's  home  was  the  best 
family  home  available  for  the  boys  until  they  were 
capable  of  self-support.  Such  protection  by  law  is  the 
right  of  every  child,  and  of  every  parent.  The  father 
needed  the  law  patiently  and  firmly  administered  to  com- 
pel him  to  support  his  children.  If  the  mother  were 
deemed  fit  to  rear  her  own  children,  she  needed  financial 
assistance  from  a  public  fund  supplementing  her  earn- 
ings to  enable  her  to  support  her  children  in  her  home 
in  so  far  as  the  law  failed  to  compel  the  father's  support. 
If  she  were  found  unfit  to  rear  her  children,  the  same 
protective  law  should,  through  a  court  of  competent 
jurisdiction,  enter  an  order  separating  the  children  from 
her,  and  protecting  them  as  wards  of  the  court  until  a 
suitable  family  home  could  be  found  as  a  substitute  for 
their  own. 

These  questions  arise  and  should  be  frankly  met  by 
the  state  now :  Is  this  father  justly  relieved  of  all  re- 
sponsibility for  the  support,  training,  and  care  of  his 
children?  Is  the  mother  justly  deprived  of  her  right  to 
mother  her  children?  Is  she  separated  from  them  be- 
cause of  poverty,  or  is  she  in  no  way  fit  to  rear  them? 
Are  the  children  treated  fairly  in  being  deprived  of  the 
services  of  the  juvenile  court?  Are  they  in  the  best 
foster  home  available  ? 

Seven  miles  from  town  on  a  4O-acre  farm  live  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Reese  Crawford,  and  Bertha,  14.  The  writer  saw 
Bertha  at  Forest  Hill  school  where  records  show  regular 
attendance  and  fair  scholarship  in  fifth  grade  work. 
Stopping  at  the  comfortable  six-room  cottage,  we  found 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crawford  who  spoke  tenderly  of  the  child 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  195 

and  the  circumstances  under  which  she  came  into  their 
home.  When  about  one  year  of  age,  she  toddled  onto 
their  porch  one  day  while  they  lived  in  the  nearby  vil- 
lage. With  her  vocabulary  limited  to  "mama"  and 
"baby,"  Mrs.  Crawford  could  not  find  where  she  came 
from.  After  a  lunch  of  bread  and  milk,  she  started  with 
the  child  to  find  her  home.  It  developed  that  the  unmar- 
ried mother,  Ella,  boarded  on  the  next  street,  worked  in 
a  restaurant,  and  depended  on  the  landlady  to  "mind 
the  baby"  during  the  day.  As  a  result  of  Bertha's  ex- 
cursion, Ella  came  to  the  Crawfords  to  board  and  Mrs. 
Crawford  helped  to  care  for  the  child.  In  the  course  of 
a  few  months  with  overwork  and  small  pay,  Ella  asked 
the  Crawfords  to  keep  Bertha  so  that  she  might  secure 
elsewhere  better  paying  employment  than  the  little  vil- 
lage furnished.  The  Crawfords  consented  on  one  condi- 
tion, namely,  that  Ella  give  the  child  to  them  legally  as 
they  never  could  be  happy  to  part  with  her  in  later 
years.  Only  when  they  assured  Ella  that  she  could  see 
her  as  frequently  as  she  chose,  did  she  consent.  A  con- 
tract was  drawn  incorporating  the  statute  for  binding 
out  children.  Though  never  recorded,  it  stands  as  a 
private  agreement  between  Ella  and  the  Crawfords. 
For  several  months,  the  mother  spent  all  her  leisure 
hours  with  her  child.  Each  time  when  she  left  both 
wept  bitterly  over  the  parting.  Finally,  she  came  only 
when  the  child  was  asleep,  hovering  over  her,  cooing 
love  songs,  leaving  always  before  she  awoke.  This 
continued  for  several  months,  when  she  went  to  work 
in  another  county.  In  the  course  of  time,  Ella  married 
happily,  lived  in  a  neighboring  state,  was  the  mother 
of  four  children  and  though  she  never  saw  Bertha  after 
she  was  three  years  of  age,  every  few  months  for  10 
years  she  and  the  Crawfords  exchanged  letters  and 
pictures.  Bertha  has  a  family  group  photograph  taken 
just  before  her  mother's  death  with  the  "flu"  in  1919. 
The  Crawfords  feel  keenly  their  responsibility  for 
Bertha's  future.  Last  summer  she  became  restless,  felt 
the  country  was  dull,  and  wanted  to  go  to  the  village 
to  work.  Mrs.  Crawford  arranged  for  her  to  go  to  a 
friend  on  a  business  agreement  with  a  wage  commen- 


196  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

surate  to  the  work  required.  In  a  few  weeks,  Bertha 
was  eager  to  return  home  and  studiously  applied  herself 
to  tasks  about  the  house,  happy  when  time  came  for 
opening  of  school. 

IN  ALMSHOUSES 

Conforming  to  the  custom  of  referring  to  the  county  farm 
as  an  almshouse,  the  writer  used  the  term  when  talking  with 
county  officials.  One  day  an  elderly  man,  clerk  of  the  county 
court,  looked  bewildered  a  moment,  then  said,  "We  call  it 
plain  pore-house."  Clerks  of  county  courts  are  familiar  with 
the  general  policy  in  their  counties  regarding  care  of  chil- 
dren in  almshouses,  but  keep  no  record  at  the  court  house, 
and  seldom  know  anything  of  the  number,  their  family  his- 
tory, or  the  circumstances  under  which  they  are  received  or 
dismissed.  County  commissioners  and  overseers  of  the  poor 
handle  such  matters  personally.  We,  therefore,  visited  alms- 
houses,  though  frequently  they  are  very  difficult  of  access. 
In  each  instance,  they  are  located  in  the  open  country,  and 
the  buildings  are  of  every  variety  from  the  modern  fire-proof, 
hospital-like  structure  planned  and  equipped  for  care  of  the 
county's  dependents,  to  the  dilapidated,  run-down  buildings  of 
a  poor  mountain  farm.  There  is  no  uniformity  of  standards, 
records,  policies  or  spirit.  A  few  receive  children  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  because  they  know  of  no  other  way  to  provide  for 
them.  Others  refuse  because  they  believe  the  almshouse  "is 
no  fit  place  for  any  child,"  others  because  they  are  not 
equipped  to  keep  them  separate  from  the  aged  inmates. 

Sentiment  against  keeping  children  in  almshouses  has 
crystallized  in  a  very  positive  demand  that  all  normal  chil- 
dren be  removed,  and  no  new  cases  of  child  dependency  be 
accepted.  This  demand  has  penetrated  into  some  of  the 
most  rural  counties;  as  one  keeper  said  regarding  normal 
children,  "We  have  had  none  here  for  over  a  year  and  the 
most  we  ever  had  at  one  time  was  nine,  two  years  ago." 
Another  reported  28  children  at  one  time  during  the  winter 
of  1919  and  1920,  with  19  attending  district  school.  While  it 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  197 

is  not  a  general  practice  to  house  children  there,  they  never- 
theless are  found  in  almshouses.  Seventeen  counties  out  of 
23  receive  and  care  for  normal  children,  and  three  counties 
with  thriving,  wide-awake  cities  as  seats  of  government  are 
the  most  serious  offenders. 

We  visited  58  children  in  19  almshouses,  40  of  wnom  are 
recognized  as  normal  and  18  mentally  defective.  We  found 
records  of  24  but  recently  removed,  nine  of  whom  had  been 
placed  in  foster  homes  and  15  just  dismissed.  In  each  in- 
stance, children  associate  with  old  men  and  women,  with 
the  feeble-minded  and  syphilitic  inmates,  and  with  two  ex- 
ceptions occupy  the  same  sleeping  rooms,  use  the  same 
toilets  and  eat  in  the  same  dining  rooms  with  the  inmates. 
With  two  exceptions,  they  attend  free  school  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. One  county  conducts  a  private  school  on  the  farm, 
and  the  other  has  never  sent  the  children  to  school.  Aims- 
houses  are  being  used  as  maternity  hospitals  without  equip- 
ment. They  shelter  unmarried  mothers  and  their  babes; 
they  shelter  deserted  and  widowed  mothers  and  their  chil- 
dren, even  family  groups  both  mentally  normal  and  defec- 
tive ;  they  are  used  as  detention  homes  for  juvenile  and  adult 
delinquents ;  and  in  a  few  instances,  receive  children  in  need 
of  treatment  for  venereal  disease.  Records  seldom  include 
more  than  names,  dates,  and  by  whom  admitted.  One 
county  kept  a  register  for  a  period  of  10  years,  and  recorded 
names  of  15  babies  born  in  the  almshouse  with  names  and 
ages  of  mothers.  The  same  records  show  that  family  groups 
sent  by  overseers  of  the  poor  had  remained  from  two  to 
five  years.  The  wife  of  a  keeper,  telling  of  two  orphans, 
aged  seven  and  five,  in  the  almshouse  three  years,  referred 
to  them  as  "bright  little  brats/'  removed  to  an  orphanage 
and  "adopted  out  inside  two  months."  A  girl,  10,  is  being 
reared  as  a  member  of  the  keeper's  family.  She  was  born 
in  the  almshouse,  her  mother  an  inmate  for  many  years. 
She  is  known  as  "Kate's  child"  by  all  the  old  men  and 
women,  some  of  whom  have  been  county  charges  over  50 
years.  A  few  days  previous  to  our  visit  an  old  woman 


198  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

"threw  it  up  to  the  child,"  who  ran  to  her  foster  mother 
sobbing,  "Kate's  not  my  mama,  is  she?  I  hate  her."  A 
two-year-old  baby  born  in  the  almshouse,  her  mother  an 
inmate  many  years,  was  taken  to  her  foster  home  the  day 
following  our  visit.  Her  mother  had  taken  all  care  of  her : 
living,  cooking,  eating  and  sleeping  in  a  room  with  a  feeble- 
minded old  woman. 

The  conditions  under  which  children  are  living  in  many 
almshouses  stand  as  a  reflection  against  the  people  in  any 
county,  in  any  state,  who  permit  such  injustice  toward  help- 
less children.  With  possibly  one  exception,  those  in  charge 
are  doing  everything  in  their  power  for  the  children's  train- 
ing and  education,  but  in  no  sense  are  their  best  interests  of 
first  consideration.  Except  when  designated  as  mentally 
defective,  all  the  children  are  considered  normal.  With 
facilities  for  mental  tests  practically  non-existent,  it  is  diffi- 
cult for  those  most  familiar  with  them  to  know  whether 
children  are  retarded,  undeveloped,  dull  or  defective  men- 
tally. In  many  instances,  reports  of  tests  recently  made  by 
the  mental  hygiene  association  were  known  by  those  in 
charge.  In  others,  the  officer's  classification  was  accepted 
in  conjunction  with  such  points  as  ability  to  do  the  usual 
school  work  of  normal  children,  to  conduct  themselves  nor- 
mally in  association  with  normal  people,  whether  they  are 
considered  placeable  in  so  far  as  application  has  been  made 
for  their  legal  adoption,  and  whether  committed  to  the  alms- 
house  as  dependents  with  no  question  of  being  defectives. 
Often  all  children  in  almshouses  are  referred  to  as  de- 
fectives. Nothing  is  more  unjust  to  the  children  nor  to 
those  charged  with  their  care  than  such  a  sweeping  state- 
ment. The  wonder  is  that  any  normal  child  does  not  become 
permanently  retarded  after  a  few  months'  association  with 
the  inmates  of  the  average  almshouse. 

In  one,  23  children  were  residing  last  spring  and  on  the 
day  of  our  visit  there  were  12,  all  living  in  slum  conditions. 
Families  in  the  depths  of  poverty  and  destitution  live  under 
no  more  wretched  conditions  of  crowding,  filth,  lack  of 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  199 

sanitation,  absence  of  fresh  air  and  light,  clothing  ragged 
and  dirty,  with  no  opportunity  for  education. 

Just  seven  years  ago,  a  widow  and  her  six  children 
were  brought  to  the  almshouse  by  an  overseer  of  the 
poor.  After  the  death  of  her  husband  she  had  received 
treatment  for  several  months  at  a  state  hospital  for 
insane,  and  had  been  dismissed  as  cured;  she  is  said 
to  have  suffered  no  recurrence  and  has  not  been  in  need 
of  treatment  for  mental  disturbance.  She  is  strong, 
industrious,  capable;  has  taken  care  of  her  growing 
children  in  two  rooms  at  the  almshouse ;  has  cooked, 
scrubbed,  washed,  mended,  sewed,  and  has  given  them 
all  the  training  they  have  had.  The  eldest,  a  boy, 
entered  service  and  went  over-seas ;  the  others,  now  16, 
14,  13,  10  and  8  years,  have  not  attended  school  in 
seven  years,  have  labored  on  the  farm,  and  associated 
only  with  men  and  women  inmates  of  the  almshouse. 
The  mother  deplores  their  lack  of  schooling  but  said  she 
"put  up  with  it"  because  she  didn't  know  there  was  any 
other  way  to  keep  her  children  with  her. 

A  girl,  12,  has  been  in  the  almshouse  five  years  and 
the  keeper  claims  that  a  relative  is  paying  her  board. 
Another,  14,  there  five  years,  is  working  for  the  keeper's 
family.  Neither  has  attended  school.  And  so  it  goes. 

In  many  respects  this  county  is  doing  some  of  the  best 
work  with  children  in  the  state,  through  city,  county  and 
private  groups,  but  officials  busy  in  their  own  depart- 
ments, acknowledge  they  are  not  familiar  with  condi- 
tions at  the  almshouse  and  that  "somebody  ought  to 
look  after  the  children." 

In  another  county  with  an  active  department  of  poor 
relief,  a  juvenile  court,  and  probation  officer,  the  aims- 
house  has  been  designated  as  juvenile  detention  home, 
and  the  keeper  named  as  superintendent,  but  he  should 
not  be  required  to  carry  responsibility  for  children  in 
addition  to  managing  the  large  farm,  and  caring  for  the 
aged  and  sick  residents  of  a  county  home. 

At  the  time  of  our  visit  there  were  eight  boys  present, 
only  one  of  whom  is  considered  deficient.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  a  baby  born  in  the  almshouse  in  June,  1920, 


200  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

the  boys  sleep  in  the  old  men's  department  in  the  first 
room  adjoining  the  family  quarters.  The  room  has 
bare  walls,  windows  and  floor.  Double  beds  with  mat- 
tresses and  badly  worn  blankets  are  the  only  furnish- 
ings. The  boys  use  the  same  stairs,  toilet  and  bath- 
room, and  eat  in  the  same  dining-room  as  the  old  men. 
They  care  for  their  own  room  under  the  direction  of 
the  kindly  housewife  and  assist  with  the  work  about  the 
house  and  farm  yard.  On  the  day  of  our  visit,  a  nine- 
year-old  boy  carried  dinner  trays  to  men  in  the  hospital 
some  distance  removed  from  the  house;  when  he  en- 
tered "old  Bill's  room"  the  child  found  him  dead.  Dur- 
ing the  afternoon  the  child's  cheeks  were  flushed,  his 
hands  trembled,  yet  no  one  comforted  him  or  helped  ad- 
just him  to  the  unusual  and  distressing  experience. 

Children  were  helping  in  the  one  kitchen  where  all 
food  was  prepared,  along  with  a  woman  who  within  the 
week  had  been  diagnosed  as  an  open  case  of  syphilis  by 
two  physicians.  Ugly  sores  were  on  her  face.  A  girl, 
13,  recently  returned  from  the  State  Industrial  School 
because  afflicted  with  venereal  disease,  had  proven  un- 
controllable, and  was  being  detained  in  the  county  jail 
for  treatment;  when  staying  at  the  almshouse  as  a  de- 
tention home,  she  lived  in  the  women's  section,  associat- 
ing with  feeble-minded  and  decrepit  old  women. 


CHILDREN   BORN  OUT  OF  WEDLOCK 

The  discussion  of  rural  children  born  out  of  wedlock  is 
based  on  stories  of  72  children,  born  of  51  mothers,  living 
in  44  homes.  Without  exception,  the  mothers  were  living 
in  the  open  country  at  the  time  of  their  misfortune,  and 
those  who  were  employed  in  cities  returned  to  their  homes 
in  the  country  and  continued  as  members  of  their  own 
family  groups.  We  do  not  include  the  17  children  born  out 
of  wedlock  who  with  their  15  mothers  are  living  in  five 
almshouses,  because  in  many  instances  these  mothers  came 
from  the  city  and  are  not  distinctly  rural.  A  striking  con- 
trast is  found  in  the  mentality  of  the  rural  unmarried 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  201 

mothers  compared  with  those  in  almshouses.  Over  50  per 
cent  in  almshouses  are  defective,  while  according  to  a  con- 
servative estimate  not  more  than  25  per  cent  of  the  former 
are  defective. 

Out  of  72  children,  49  were  born  in  the  mother's  family 
home,  20  in  institutions,  such  as  the  Florence  Crittenden 
Home,  Salvation  Army  or  mission  maternity  homes  and  three 
in  general  hospitals.  By  far  the  largest  number,  78  per  cent, 
are  being  reared  by  their  mothers,  8  per  cent  by  grand- 
parents, 7  per  cent  by  foster  parents,  and  7  per  cent  have 
died. 

We  secured  reliable  information  regarding  the  paternity 
of  about  one-third  of  the  children,  which  we  classify  under 
three  heads.  Unmarried  neighbors  are  fathers  of  n  per 
cent,  married  men  of  13  per  cent,  and  blood  relatives  of  10 
per  cent.  Only  10  of  these  mothers  have  filed  complaints  at- 
tempting to  hold  the  fathers  responsible  for  support  of  their 
children.  Few  of  these  cases  came  up  for  hearing.  Jus- 
tices' court  dockets  contain  records  of  complaints  filed  by 
mothers  over  their  affidavits  naming  the  alleged  fathers, 
referring  to  the  children  as  "bastards"  or  "illegitimate,"  yet 
no  action  is  taken.  Should  such  public  records  be  permitted 
to  stand?  One  record  of  prosecution  stands  against  an  un- 
married man  commonly  known  as  the  father  of  four  chil- 
dren in  the  neighborhood,  all  "sworn  to  him  in  court";  the 
payment  of  $100  was  required  for  the  support  of  each  child. 

The  age  of  the  mother  at  the  time  of  the  child's  birth 
varies  from  13  to  22  years,  with  the  following  per  cents :  7 
per  cent  are  unknown;  4  per  cent  are  13  years  old;  20  per 
cent  14;  20  per  cent  15;  22  per  cent  16;  13  per  cent  17;  8 
per  cent  18 ;  and  2  per  cent  each  20,  21  and  22. 

Unmarried  mothers  in  rural  communities  frequently  re- 
main in  their  own  homes  rearing  their  children  as  members 
of  their  families,  apparently  without  opprobrium  being 
heaped  on  either  the  mothers  or  children.  The  towns  or 
small  cities  large  enough  to  attract  her  as  possible  hiding 
places,  yet  not  providing  wise  counsel  for  her,  are  far  more 


202  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

disastrous  in  their  effects  than  the  open  country.  Officials, 
police  matrons,  nurses,  missions,  agencies,  private  citizens 
or  any  who  without  knowledge  of  all  the  facts  separate  chil- 
dren from  their  mothers  are  just  as  anti-social  as  though 
they  violated  statutes  of  the  state.  They  should  be  required 
by  the  state  to  meet  well  defined  minimum  standards  or  go 
out  of  this  business.  There  is  no  way  of  knowing  how  many 
rural  mothers  are  victims  of  such  "charity,"  but  from  inter- 
views with  a  score  or  more  who  place  out  "un-wanted 
babies"  without  investigation  and  without  record  of  so  much 
as  the  names  of  mother,  child,  or  new  home,  we  are  confi- 
dent that  large  numbers  of  rural  mothers  fall  into  the  hands 
of  well  meaning  but  selfishly  misguided  persons.  A  woman 
who  is  proud  of  the  fact  that  she  has  secured  homes  for  78 
babies  in  about  2^  years  in  this  manner,  said  to  the  writer, 
"You  know  a  child  like  that  don't  amount  to  a  cuss  when 
raised  with  its  mother."  A  man  who  exclaimed,  "Oh,  if 
you'd  seen  what  nice  clothes  they  brought  to  put  on  the  baby 
you'd  know  it  would  have  a  good  home,"  makes  no  inquiry 
and  keeps  no  records.  Another  of  similar  type  is  responsible 
for  this  article  which  appeared  in  the  county  seat  daily, 
"Who  wants  this  Pretty  Baby  Boy — Mothers  and  Fathers, 
do  you  want  to  adopt  a  pretty  baby  boy  in  good,  healthy 

condition?  is  looking  for  good  parents  and  a  good 

home  for  a  little  four-months-old  fellow  left  in  their  care. 

The  baby  may  be  seen  by  making  arrangements  with 

at or  you  may  call  on  the  telephone.    The in 

the  last  year  has  aided  in  finding  homes  for  14  babies.    As 

soon  as  the  stories  are  printed  in  the  paper, says  he 

is  besieged  by  requests  for  the  child.  If  you  want  this  one, 
he  says  you'll  have  to  hurry  for  it's  a  prize,  one  of  the  many 

that  have  been  left  in  the  care  of ."     The  purpose 

and  spirit  may  be  sincere,  but  this  method  of  finding  homes 
for  children  born  out  of  wedlock  is  a  crime  against  the  chil- 
dren, their  mothers,  and  the  state.  Among  records  of  adop- 
tion, it  was  not  uncommon  to  find  such  cases  as  that  of  Elsie, 
four  months  old,  whose  mother  had  given  written  consent 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  203 

and  did  not  appear  in  court  though  she  lived  in  the  county. 
The  adoptive  parent  said,  "We  went  to  the  city  hospital  with 
the  understanding  of  adopting  her."  Question,  "That  was 
in  answer  to  an  advertisement  in  the  paper  for  a  home  for 
this  child,  was  it  not?"  Answer,  "Yes,  sir." 

Twelve  unmarried  mothers  have  more  than  one  child 
each.  Three  with  their  children  are  living  in  homes  by 
themselves.  Information  regarding  32  mothers  shows  that 
12  are  daughters  of  farm  owners,  8  of  renters,  3  of  squat- 
ters, one  of  "hired  help,"  and  8  are  orphans  reared  in  foster 
homes.  While  distance  from  town  may  have  no  bearing  on 
their  misfortune,  it  is  interesting  that  out  of  32,  10  live  two 
miles  from  a  town,  4  live  three  miles,  3,  four  miles,  8,  five 
miles,  3,  seven  miles,  3,  nine  miles,  and  I,  seventeen  miles. 
In  matter  of  education,  they  vary  from  the  high  school 
graduate  to  the  illiterate  and  mentally  defective.  Through 
the  stories  of  all  run  the  pathetic  facts  of  isolation,  mis- 
directed affection,  deceit,  and  the  absence  of  many  things 
normal  to  wholesome  child  life. 

DEPENDENT   CHILDREN    WITH   THEIR   OWN    FAMILIES 

Children's  first  right  is  to  live  in  their  own  family  homes 
with  at  least  the  minimum  standards  accepted  in  their  com- 
munity for  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  Food  not  just  suffi- 
cient to  keep  soul  and  body  together,  but  of  the  kind  and 
amount  to  develop  healthy  bodies ;  clothing  not  just  to  cover, 
but  adequate  and  of  variety  to  protect  and  give  warmth 
according  to  the  season;  shelter  not  simply  from  the  ele- 
ments, but  a  home  with  opportunity  for  education,  work, 
play,  religious  instruction  and  comradeship.  Leading  family 
social  workers,  children's  agents  and  court  officials  main- 
tain that  children  should  not  be  separated  from  their  own 
families  except  as  a  last  resort  after  patient,  skillful,  con- 
tinuous effort  has  failed  to  preserve,  to  develop,  or  to  rebuild 
the  family  group.  At  the  same  time,  the  fact  is  recognized 
that  a  distressingly  large  number  of  children  can  never  have 


204  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

opportunity  for  normal  childhood,  and  can  never  hope  to 
develop  into  self-respecting,  self-supporting  citizens  unless 
educational  factors  can  be  taken  into  their  homes,  gradually 
bringing  about  a  marked  change  in  conditions  of  family  and 
home  life.  How  far  can  a  community,  a  county,  a  state, 
enter  the  intimate  circles  of  family  groups  and  influence  their 
standards  for  the  care  of  their  children  ?  Shall  we  say  that 
it  can  influence  them  just  so  far  as  enough  people  in  the 
community  have  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  all  children 
equivalent  to  a  parent's  responsibility  for  his  own?  For 
the  discussion  of  children  living  with  their  own  families,  we 
select  rural  homes  in  which  dependency  exists  in  addition 
to  all  other  factors  depriving  children  of  minimum  stand- 
ards of  living  and  education,  and  reserve  for  later  considera- 
tion neglected  children  whose  families  in  no  way  live  near 
the  line  of  dependency.  They  fall  under  three  heads:  (i) 
children  either  receiving  or  in  need  of  children's  aid  or 
mothers'  pensions;  (2)  children  in  dependant  families,  whose 
income  is  supplemented  by  public  or  private  "charity";  (3) 
feeble-minded  children  living  with  their  feeble-minded  par- 
ents. Findings  are  based  on  stories  of  392  children,  be- 
longing to  91  families,  in  106  homes.  They  are  distributed 
(i)  children  in  need  of  aid  or  mothers'  pensions:  132  chil- 
dren of  33  families,  now  living  in  48  homes;  (2)  in  de- 
pendent families :  205  children,  of  50  families,  in  50  homes ; 
(3)  feeble-minded  with  feeble-minded  parents:  55  children, 
of  8  families,  in  8  homes.  All  reflect  the  attitude  of  the 
county,  the  only  official  group  touching  every  neighborhood, 
toward  outdoor  relief  and  mothers'  pensions ;  they  reflect  the 
sympathetic  but  limited  extent  of  private  charity  and  em- 
phasize the  need  of  the  family  group  as  the  natural  and 
compelling  factor  in  the  life  of  every  community. 

In  only  four  counties  out  of  the  23  visited  were  there 
private  agencies  doing  family  social  work,  and  these  reach 
rural  families  only  occasionally.  Only  one  has  a  car  at  its 
disposal  and  that  but  part  time.  Five  counties  have  Red 
Cross  volunteer  secretaries,  and  five  others  have  paid  secre- 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  205 

taries  handling  family  problems  for  soldiers  and  civilians  in 
rural  districts.  Two  counties  work  only  with  soldiers'  fam- 
ilies. Only  one  secretary  has  a  car  for  visits  into  the  coun- 
try. In  seven  counties  health  programs  are  maintained  by 
the  Red  Cross  and  nursing  service  is  carried  on  in  rural 
neighborhoods.  The  nurse,  frequently  the  only  social  agent 
touching  the  family,  is  confronted  with  problems  she  is 
neither  able  to  understand  nor  handle,  and  many  which  her 
own  professional  ethics  will  not  permit  her  to  handle.  For 
instance,  in  a  county  with  a  big  health  program  but  limited 
in  other  social  work,  the  county  poor  department  restricts 
relief  to  $2.50  a  month  for  groceries  and  two  tons  of  coal  a 
year  without  regard  to  the  size  of  the  family.  With  the 
nurse,  we  visited  a  home  from  which  the  tuberculous  father 
was  being  taken  to  the  sanitarium,  and  where  instruction 
was  being  given  to  the  mother  and  five  little  children  in 
means  of  preventing  the  spread  of  disease.  To  our  per- 
sistent questioning  as  to  what  resources  the  nurse  had  for 
all  the  other  social  service  needed  in  the  home,  she  replied, 
"When  we  have  taken  care  of  the  sick  there  isn't  anything 
else."  Later,  we  found  that  two  children  in  that  home  were 
wards  of  the  juvenile  court  on  probation  at  the  time  of  our 
visit.  We  cite  this  in  no  criticism  of  the  nurse  for  she  was 
already  doing  the  work  of  two  or  three  women,  but  rather 
to  illustrate  a  limited  vision  and  an  unlimited  opportunity  to 
cooperate  with  all  social  agencies  in  the  community  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  family  unit,  and  the  need  for  all-around 
family  social  work. 

Need  of  Children's  Aid  or  Mothers'  Pensions.  The  term 
"mother's  pension"  is  misleading.  The  idea  of  granting  a 
cash  allowance  for  the  care  of  dependent  children  under  14, 
for  any  reason  deprived  of  their  father's  support,  sprang  up 
as  a  reaction  against  conditions  separating  children  from 
their  mothers  because  of  poverty.  It  was  an  indictment 
against  the  administration  of  poor  relief  which  for  half  a 
century  had  been  associated  with  such  a  sting  and  such  nig- 
gardliness that  a  self-respecting  mother  either  broke  her 


206  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

health  from  over-work  in  an  effort  to  keep  her  children  with 
her,  or  sent  them  to  "orphanages"  rather  than  accept  as- 
sistance from  a  tax  fund.  Backed  by  the  argument  that  the 
state  might  pay  to  the  mother  in  her  own  home  an  amount 
in  cash  for  each  child  under  14,  equivalent  to  the  cost  of 
caring  for  the  child  in  an  institution,  the  so-called  mother's 
pension,  more  correctly  children's  allowance  idea,  swept 
through  the  states  about  a  decade  ago. 

West  Virginia  has  a  mother's  pension  law,  passed  in 
February,  1917.  It  requires  that  the  father  be  dead,  in- 
capacitated mentally  or  physically,  confined  to  a  state  insti- 
tution, or  have  abandoned  the  family.  The  mother  must 
be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  resident  of  the  state  five 
years,  of  the  county  two  years,  and  have  two  or  more  chil- 
dren under  13  years.  Application  is  made  to  the  county 
court,  investigation  made  by  a  member  of  the  court,  report 
submitted  in  writing  with  usual  petition,  summons,  service, 
hearing  and  order  of  court.  The  law  states  that  the  court  may 
order  payment  from  the  county  funds  of  "an  amount  of 
money  necessary  to  enable  the  mother  to  properly  care  for 
such  children,"  then  proceeds  to  specify  that  the  amount 
shall  not  exceed  $15  per  month  for  two  children,  nor  $5  per 
month  per  child,  the  total  never  to  be  more  than  $25  per 
month.  Conditions  upon  which  the  pension  may  be  granted 
require  that  the  children  live  with  their  mother,  that  it  be 
for  the  welfare  of  the  children  to  remain  with  her,  that 
the  mother  without  such  relief  would  have  to  work  away 
from  home,  but  that  with  it  she  work  away  only  such  time 
as  the  court  specifies.  The  mother  must  be  fit  physically, 
mentally  and  morally;  must  save  the  children  from  neglect; 
must  not  own  property  other  than  household  goods;  and 
must  not  receive  workmen's  compensation.  The  law  re- 
quires reports  of  school  attendance  from  the  children's 
teachers,  and  denies  relief  if  relatives  contribute  an  amount 
equal  to  the  pension,  or  if  any  adult  person  stays  in  the 
home.  The  pension  ceases  when  the  children  reach  13  unless 
they  are  ill  or  incapacitated  for  work,  in  which  cases  it  may 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  207 

continue  until  they  reach  the  age  of  16.  The  law  is  unfor- 
tunate in  at  least  five  respects.  It  does  not  harmonize  with 
the  state  child  labor  or  compulsory  school  attendance  laws, 
because  its  maximum  age  limit  is  13  years,  while  that  of  the 
two  other  laws  is  14  years,  and  under  certain  circumstances 
is  as  high  as  16  years ;  hence,  a  poor  mother  with  a  13-year- 
old  child  cannot  put  him  to  work,  and  must  send  him  to 
school,  and  yet  is  denied  this  relief.  The  aid  should  be 
available  until  her  child  is  no  longer  compelled  by  law  to 
attend  school,  or,  in  other  words,  until  he  becomes  eligible 
for  a  work  permit.  Administration  is  left  with  the  same 
group  in  charge  of  poor  relief  and  the  almshouse.  As  a  gen- 
eral rule  we  found  county  courts  interpreting  the  mother's 
pension  as  a  form  of  poor  relief,  referring  to  the  mothers 
who  make  application  as  paupers  and  marking  the  grant 
"pauper."  In  a  few  instances  they  offer  the  almshouse  as 
a  substitute.  The  maximum  amount  is  quite  inadequate  and 
bars  the  family  from  receiving  any  other  form  of  outdoor 
poor  relief.  While  a  property  qualification  is  frequently  em- 
bodied in  such  laws,  most  states  have  been  liberal  in  their 
interpretation  of  what  constitutes  property,  and  a  home  of 
small  value  does  not  usually  bar  the  children  from  necessary 
aid,  but  unfortunately  the  possession  of  any  form  of  prop- 
erty is  considered  ground  for  denying  aid  in  many  counties 
in  West  Virginia.  A  young  widow  with  three  children  under 
seven  had  about  $350  life  insurance.  After  paying  debts, 
she  had  enough  left  to  buy  a  cow.  Her  husband's  employer 
remodeled  a  stable  and  permits  her  to  live  in  it  without 
paying  rent.  The  county  court  not  only  denies  her  the 
mother's  pension  but  also  poor  relief,  because  "the  cow  is 
property."  No  provision  is  made  by  law,  and  we  found  no 
provision  made  by  administration,  for  additional  machinery 
for  making  the  law  effective;  no  probation  or  other  officer 
of  the  court  makes  investigations,  secures  help  from  relatives 
or  other  resources,  supervises  or  helps  the  mother  through 
friendly  counsel  to  meet  the  multitude  of  problems  in  her 
home. 


208  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Out  of  the  23  counties  visited  six  administer  pensions,  and 
two  grant  regular  monthly  allowances  of  poor  relief.  Two 
grant  the  maximum  allowed  by  law  and  three  make  pay- 
ments quarterly.  At  the  time  of  this  study,  94  mothers  were 
receiving  grants,  of  whom  19  were  rural,  representing  39 
rural  child  beneficiaries.  No  county  provides  supplementary 
aid  from  the  county  fund,  none  gives  friendly  supervision,  or 
requires  reports  of  any  kind  from  family  or  school.  In 
practically  every  county,  we  found  little  children  deprived 
of  their  fathers'  support  whose  mothers  were  compelled  to 
place  them  out  or  to  accept  positions  as  housekeepers  in 
homes  of  widowers,  invariably  compromising  their  own  repu- 
tation in  the  community.  We  secured  authentic  information 
regarding  132  children  of  33  families,  now  living  in  48 
homes,  who  are  in  need  of  some  form  of  children's  aid. 

An  overseer  of  the  poor  said  to  the  writer,  "I  jes' 
warned  Mrs.  Taylor  it  warn't  so  easy  to  git  on  the 
county,  yet  if  she  needs  anything  tell  her  to  come  to 
me."  Mrs.  Taylor  and  three  children  live  n  miles 
from  the  county  seat,  three  miles  up  "Stoney  Bottom 
Holler."  The  three-room  cabin  without  foundation  has 
five  windows  and  two  outside  doors.  She  pays  $1  a 
month  rent  for  10  acres  and  "right  hard  it  is  to  grub 
out  the  stumps  and  make  a  garden."  Mr.  Taylor  is  in 
a  state  hospital  for  the  insane  and  the  sole  income  is 
from  Mrs.  Taylor's  labor.  The  settlement  three  miles' 
away  is  the  nearest  place  she  can  get  work  and  buy 
food.  She  has  no  horse,  so  carries  groceries  home  in  a 
flour  sack.  She  cans  wild  fruit,  raises  vegetables,  and 
kills  her  own  meat.  She  borrowed  a  horse  and  rode 
nine  miles  to  the  overseer  of  the  poor.  He  gave  her  a 
$10  grocery  order  with  such  a  scolding  that  she  vowed 
she  would  let  her  children  starve  rather  than  go  to  him 
again.  Her  children,  a  girl  eight,  boys  four  and  two,  are 
frail  and  puny.  The  girl  apparently  has  phthisis  and 
is  unable  to  breathe  when  lying  down.  Last  winter  a 
doctor  saw  her  when  he  came  to  the  home  to  examine 
the  father  for  commitment  to  the  hospital,  and  about 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  209 

a  year  ago  the  mother  borrowed  a  team  and  wagon 
and  took  her  to  a  doctor  n  miles  distant.  She  "  'lows 
as  how  she  will  outgrow  it."  A  friendly,  skillful  service 
might  make  it  possible  for  Mrs.  Taylor  to  move  to  the 
settlement  close  by  the  country  store,  and  to  have  her 
aged  mother  live  with  her  to  help  care  for  the  children, 
Mrs.  Taylor  working  as  much  as  consistent  with  the 
state  of  her  health  and  the  care  of  her  family,  her  wage 
supplemented  with  a  regular  allowance  from  public 
funds,  sufficient  to  provide  as  nearly  as  possible  a  nor- 
mal home.  The  attitude  of  the  overseer  of  the  poor  and 
the  distance  of  nine  miles  from  his  home  are  barring 
the .  little  children  from  the  assistance  to  which  they 
have  a  right,  and  for  which  there  is  great  need. 

Dependent  Families.  Information  regarding  50  rural  fam- 
ilies, with  205  children  dependent  upon  private  or  public 
relief  for  partial  support,  confirms  our  experience  in  rural 
family  case  work  in  that  problems  of  dependency  are  the 
same  in  the  open  country  as  in  the  city,  with  a  difference  in 
setting  and  facilities  for  meeting  all  the  needs.  In  every 
neighborhood  visited,  we  found  dependent  and  neglected 
families  with  little  children,  unable  themselves  to  meet  even 
the  lowest  standards  for  decent  living  and  education.  Forces 
from  outside  the  family  group  must  needs  bring  patient 
instruction  in  the  simplest  arts  of  home-making,  character 
building,  protection  from  preventable  disease,  medical  care, 
better  paying  employment,  prosecution  for  neglect  and  non- 
support,  and  occasionally  material  relief  in  the  form  of 
food,  fuel,  clothing  and  medicine. 

Two  phases  of  neighborliness  are  prevalent  among  rural 
families.  One  occurs  in  time  of  sudden  disaster ;  the  other, 
when  neighbors  believe  the  family  capable  of  caring  for 
itself  but  unwilling  to  make  the  effort.  The  first  is  illustrated 
in  the  burning  of  James  Vincent's  home  when  the  family 
lost  everything  except  the  clothing  they  had  on.  It  was  a 
bitter  cold  winter  day.  Mr.  Vincent,  a  "rig  builder,"  was 
at  work  in  the  oil  field,  the  six  children  were  alone  in  the 


210  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

house,  Mrs.  Vincent  having  gone  to  a  neighbor  half  a  mile 
away  to  borrow  a  spool  of  thread.  The  older  children  had 
come  home  from  school  and  were  "minding  the  twins."  Mr. 
Vincent  was  paying  for  the  2o-acre  farm  but  for  over 
two  years  sickness  of  many  varieties  used  up  his  meagre 
savings.  From  a  radius  of  five  miles,  acquaintances  and 
strangers  sent  money,  furniture,  bedding,  clothing,  vege- 
tables, fruit,  literally  everything.  A  young  people's  society 
in  a  rural  church,  with  one  week's  notice,  took  up  a  collection 
of  $84.  The  school  gave  a  "peanut  sociable,"  the  only 
social  event  in  the  neighborhood  during  the  winter,  and  the 
proceeds  were  turned  over  to  the  family.  Such  expression 
of  neighborliness  is  genuine  and  spontaneous. 

Repeatedly  attendance  officers  said  they  could  not  enforce 
the  school  attendance  of  a  family  of  children  when  they  were 
destitute.  In  no  instance  coming  under  our  observation  did 
a  teacher  or  attendance  officer  have  the  backing  of  the 
county  relief  officials  in  providing  shoes,  clothing,  coats, 
mittens  or  anything  necessary  to  keep  the  children  in  school. 
The  teacher  of  a  school  in  which  three  little  children  without 
suitable  or  sufficient  clothing  were  enrolled  had  never  heard 
of  county  relief  and  was  confident  there  was  no  overseer  of 
the  poor  in  his  district.  On  inquiry  at  the  court  house,  we 
found  that  no  overseer  had  been  appointed  for  that  district 
because  the  president  of  the  county  court  lived  there  and 
year  after  year  reported  there  were  no  poor.  From  our 
observation,  it  was  one  of  the  poorest  districts  in  the  county 
in  terms  of  dependent  and  neglected  children.  The  attend- 
ance officer  and  the  Red  Cross  secretary  in  one  neighbor- 
hood reported  whole  families  of  children  out  of  school  all 
year  for  lack  of  clothing.  They  had  never  thought  of  pro- 
viding clothing  enough  to  start  the  children  to  school  and 
through  patient  personal  service  requiring  the  father  to  pro- 
vide adequately  and  the  mother  to  get  the  children  off  to 
school.  Nor  had  they  thought  of  the  case  work  needed  to 
know  all  the  facts,  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the  family  in 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  211 

carrying  out  a  plan  based  on  facts,  nor  in  case  of  willful 
neglect  had  they  thought  of  prosecuting  the  parents  instead 
of  penalizing  the  children  by  depriving  them  of  schooling. 

Desertion  is  not  uncommon  in  the  open  country.  Fathers 
are  guilty  in  larger  numbers  than  mothers,  yet  some  rural 
mothers  do  desert  their  children.  In  several  counties  circuit 
courts  are  getting  fairly  good  results  in  prosecutions  for 
non-support  and  desertion.  They  usually  require  the  man 
to  make  regular  payments  for  the  support  of  his  children  but 
provide  no  system  for  following  up  the  court's  order,  de- 
pending on  the  wife  to  report  any  violation.  We  found  no 
court  reaching  rural  families  that  lived  more  than  two  or 
three  miles  from  the  county  seat.  There  is  need  for  efforts 
to  preserve  and  rebuild  the  rural  family  unit,  and  for  prose- 
cution and  supervision  only  after  all  efforts  to  rebuild  have 
failed. 

Youthful  marriage  is  without  doubt  a  contributing  factor 
in  family  dependency.  While  we  secured  no  extensive  evi- 
dence, we  know  that  some  girls  in  rural  mountain  counties 
marry  at  as  early  an  age  as  12  years,  and  many  at  14  and  15. 
Many  grandmothers  caring  for  dependent  grandchildren  are 
comparatively  young  women.  In  one  application  for  a 
license  to  marry,  the  girl,  already  divorced,  gave  her  age  as 
15.  In  two  school  registers  the  following  notation  was 
found  after  the  names  of  four  girls  whose  ages  are  recorded 
as  14 :  "married  during  vacation."  The  record  of  the  mar- 
riage of  two  West  Virginia  children  in  Maryland  gives  the 
age  of  the  boy  as  21  and  of  the  girl  as  18,  while  in  fact  the 
boy  is  not  quite  17  and  the  girl  not  quite  12.  Unfortunately, 
birth  registration  is  not  always  available  for  legal  proof  of 
age. 

Cheap  land  attracts  types  of  families  that  create  slum 
neighborhoods  in  otherwise  prosperous,  well  organized,  rural 
counties.  In  one  such  "slum"  the  land  belongs  to  a  wealthy 
private  citizen  who  makes  no  improvements  and  no  repairs, 
and  the  low  rent  he  charges  therefore  brings  him  large  re- 
turns on  his  investment.  In  another,  lots  were  put  on  the 


212  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

market  at  auction,  many  selling  for  as  low  as  $25,  the  buyer 
building  a  shanty  according  to  his  own  plans.  Another 
such  area  is  owned  by  a  corporation  which  allows  squatters 
to  use  the  land  for  one  to  five  dollars  a  year.  All  have  con- 
ditions equally  unfavorable  as  far  as  the  children  are  con- 
cerned. 

Feeble-Minded  Children  with  Feeble-Minded  Parents. 
Reference  is  made  to  families  of  children  born  of  feeble- 
minded parents  for  the  purpose  of  emphasizing  two  points : 
namely,  prevalence  of  feeble-mindedness  in  rural  districts, 
and  lack  of  control.  Rural  life  with  its  possibilities  of  iso- 
lation makes  it  easy  for  mental  and  moral  degenerates  to 
live  in  secluded  spots  one  generation  after  another,  children 
growing  to  maturity  without  coming  in  contact  with  any 
phase  of  life  outside  their  immediate  groups.  The  "half 
wit"  who  lives  an  apparently  harmless  life  is  known  in  a 
friendly  way  by  his  neighbors  who,  choosing  the  line  of 
least  resistance,  permit  anti-social  conditions  to  continue 
indefinitely  rather  than  arouse  the  ill-will  of  mentally  irre- 
sponsible neighbors.  Every  county  has  feeble-minded  chil- 
dren, but  we  select  eight  families  in  which  both  parents  are 
without  doubt  feeble-minded  as  examples  of  persistent  con- 
ditions. The  total  number  of  children  in  the  eight  families 
is  55 ;  many  are  without  question  idiots,  and  all  are  recog- 
nized in  their  neighborhoods  as  "not  bright." 

A  group  of  three  families  at  Staffords'  Cross  Roads 
reveals  conditions  common  to  all.  The  country  store- 
keeper pointed  to  a  cabin  beautifully  located  up  Sweet 
Spring  Hollow  and  asked  the  writer  to  visit  it  without 
inquiring  about  the  family  in  advance.  Speaking  for 
all  his  neighbors,  he  was  eager  to  know  what  they  could 
do  to  protect  the  children  and  themselves.  We  reached 
the  cabin  just  as  Mark,  the  head  of  the  family,  came 
home  at  noon.  Except  for  this  coincidence,  we  doubt 
whether  we  could  have  secured  any  information  other- 
wise than  through  observation,  for  neither  the  mother 
nor  the  three  older  children  speak  more  than  three  or 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  213 

four  words  at  a  time.  The  family,  parents  and  five 
children,  were  hovering  over  a  cracked  stove.  Claude, 
12,  had  gathered  green  wood  from  the  mountain.  The 
day  was  bitter  cold,  and  the  writer  was  comfortable 
only  while  walking,  though  wearing  a  woolen  dress,  a 
sweater,  a  raincoat  and  heavy  shoes.  The  mother  and 
Fairy,  20,  wore  men's  shirts  and  overalls,  the  latter 
ragged  and  torn  half  way  above  the  knees,  with  no 
underclothing,  no  stockings,  and  men's  shoes,  badly 
dilapidated.  Annie  Lou,  the  baby,  wore  half  socks, 
white  canvas  slippers,  no  underclothing,  and  a  ragged 
cotton  slip.  Reginald,  14,  a  cripple  and  idiot,  wore  a 
girl's  dress.  The  father  was  suitably  clothed  for  his 
work  as  a  wood  chopper.  Howard,  eight,  was  warmly 
clothed  and  shod  because  he  had  been  staying  with 
Granny  Hardy  a  couple  of  months,  going  to  school ;  he 
got  "too  lonesome"  and  came  home  on  a  visit.  Four 
grown  children,  two  married  and  two  "working  away" 
are  Laferry,  Luzella,  Gilbert  and  Edward.  The  only 
evidence  of  food  was  freshly  butchered  pork  and  a 
basket  of  frozen  potatoes.  The  beds  were  a  heap  of 
dirty  rags  on  a  pair  of  springs  and  another  heap  on  the 
floor  in  the  corner.  Two  chairs,  without  backs,  a  bench 
and  the  kitchen  table  were  the  only  pieces  of  furniture 
besides  an  old  rocking  chair  in  which  the  crippled  boy 
sat.  Mark  talked  freely  of  the  10  acres  for  which  he 
pays  $20  a  year  rent  and  one  third  of  the  crops.  He 
said  there  was  no  use  for  any  of  his  children  to  go  to 
school  because  they  never  learned  anything,  yet  assured 
us  he  was  quite  able  to  provide  all  they  needed  in  cloth- 
ing and  food.  He  and  his  wife,  Annie,  are  first  cousins 
and  have  always  had  the  same  surname.  Robert,  An- 
nie's brother,  lives  at  Timber  Ridge,  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
up  the  hollow,  with  Emma,  a  sister  of  Mark's.  They 
have  five  children.  Tom,  a  cousin  of  Mark  and 
Emma,  married  Bird,  a  cousin  of  Annie  and  Robert. 
With  10  children,  eight  of  compulsory  school  age,  they 
live  under  the  very  shadow  of  South  Quarry  school 
yet  do  not  attend  regularly,  and  the  teacher  reports 
not  one  capable  of  doing  the  work  of  the  first  grade. 
Mrs.  Tom's  house  of  six  rooms  is  comfortably  fur- 


214  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

nished  and  as  clean  as  could  be  expected  with  10 
feeble-minded  children.  The  distressed  neighborhood 
sometimes  threatens  to  drive  them  out,  yet  appreciates 
that  this  would  be  cowardly  and  still  does  nothing  to 
help  conditions. 

STANDARDS  AND   CONCLUSIONS 

Standards  for  the  care  of  rural  dependent  children  should 
in  no  respect  fall  below  the  generally  accepted  standards 
for  the  care  of  all  dependent  children.  Yet  in  their  admin- 
istration the  most  fundamental  principles  are  not  reaching 
rural  children  in  counties  known  to  the  writer  and  in  no 
respect  are  they  reaching  all  dependent  children  in  the  open 
country.  Present  machinery  is  not  functioning  uniformly  in 
all  parts  of  any  county.  This  study  demonstrates  the  need 
of  new  methods  of  administration  adapted  to  care  for  all 
rural  dependent  children.  Certain  fundamental  principles 
underlie  such  treatment :  ( i )  A  child  should  never  be  sepa- 
rated from  his  parents  except  as  a  last  resort,  after  patient, 
skillful,  continuous  effort  has  failed  to  make  his  home  suit- 
able to  serve  the  best  interests  of  the  child  and  of  the  state. 
Poverty  alone  should  never  separate  a  child  from  his  mother 
or  from  his  father.  If  this  study  were  confined  to  the  392 
children  in  their  own  family  groups,  evidence  would  be 
sufficient  to  show  the  need  in  every  county  for  some  respon- 
sible authority  whose  business  is  the  care  of  needy  children 
in  their  homes.  There  is  no  means  of  knowing  how  many 
broken  homes  might  have  been  saved  to  the  children  and  to 
the  state,  had  adequate  and  understanding  social  and  relief 
service  been  available  at  the  time  most  needed.  Rural  chil- 
dren are  being  separated  from  parents  because  of  poverty 
alone,  many  are  tramping,  many  are  drifting  from  place  to 
place  with  fathers  living  and  with  mothers  living,  and  many 
with  both  parents  living.  (2)  A  second  principle  specifies  a 
private  family  home  as  the  best  substitute  for  his  own  home 
when  for  any  unavoidable  reason  a  child  is  separated  from 
his  parents.  The  burden  of  proof  that  the  separation  is 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  215 

unavoidable  rests  with  the  individual  or  the  official  respon- 
sible for  the  protection  of  all  children  in  the  locality.  The 
crippled  and  the  mentally  handicapped  child  should  receive 
treatment,  training,  and  care  in  special  hospitals  and  schools 
until  fitted  for  placement  in  a  private  family  home.  If  he 
never  becomes  fit  for  family  home  life,  permanent  care  in 
an  institution  may  be  necessary  for  the  best  interests  of  the 
child  and  of  the  state.  In  the  application  of  this  principle, 
rural  children  fare  better  in  at  least  one  respect  than  many 
in  the  cities.  Comparatively  few  rural  children  are  cared 
for  in  institutions.  They  are  usually  received  into  family 
homes  without  question  as  to  fitness,  either  on  the  part  of 
the  homes  or  of  the  children.  And  a  private  family  home, 
however  humble,  is  ordinarily  better  for  the  child  than  any 
institution.  The  tragedy  lies  in  the  fact  that  in  so  large  a 
degree  no  one  is  held  responsible  for  rural  children  in  selec- 
tion of  homes,  length  of  time  they  stay,  kind  of  care  and 
training  they  receive,  attendance  upon  school,  or  in  other 
matters  concerned  with  their  childhood  and  preparation  for 
adulthood.  The  crippled  child  left  dependent  is  not  readily 
received  in  a  family  home  and,  with  no  one  in  the  county 
finally  responsible  for  securing  treatment  and  care,  is  grossly 
neglected  and  frequently  drifts  into  the  almshouse  where  he 
spends  the  remainder  of  his  life  associating  with  defective, 
degenerate,  and  diseased  men  and  women  of  all  ages.  The 
mentally  defective  rural  child  who  is  dependent  easily  be- 
comes a  menace  to  himself  and  to  his  community.  In  a  few 
instances  he  is  committed  to  a  special  school,  and  if  reached 
by  local  authority  is  committed  to  the  almshouse,  or  under 
the  guise  of  delinquency,  to  a  state  industrial  school.  (3) 
The  state,  as  guarantor  of  protection  to  all  children, 
should  inspect,  license,  and  supervise  all  individuals  and 
agencies  caring  for  dependent  children.  Local  authority, 
which  in  rural  districts  means  the  county  authorities,  should 
be  close  to  the  child's  family  home  and  should  be  charged 
with  the  duty  and  final  responsibility  of  caring  for  all  de- 
pendent children:  those  with  their  own  family,  those  un- 


216  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

avoidably  separated  from  their  parents  or  deprived  of  their 
care,  those  legally  placeable  in  foster  homes  and  those  not, 
and  dependent  children  sick,  crippled,  mentally  deficient, 
neglected  or  delinquent.  For  the  sake  of  somewhat  nearly 
uniform  standards  and  service  to  the  children,  for  the  sake 
of  knowing  the  whole  need  and  ultimately  providing  ade- 
quately for  all  dependent  children,  the  state  must  be  respon- 
sible for  assisting  local  agencies,  public  and  private,  and  in 
so  far  as  the  family  and  the  local  agencies  fail,  the  state 
should  insure  or  provide  care  for  all  dependent  children. 
Rural  children  should  not  be  separated  from  living  parents 
without  the  knowledge  and  approval  of  a  local  public  or 
private  agency  endorsed  by  the  state,  and  families  should 
not  receive  them  without  the  approval  of  such  agency. 
Neighbors,  friends  and  relatives  who  generously  open  their 
homes  to  dependent  homeless  children  should  have  available 
some  responsible  agency  in  the  county,  approved  by  the  state, 
to  assist  in  the  delicate  and  intricate  task  of  planning  for 
their  future,  and  should  not  be  allowed  to  assume  respon- 
sibility without  such  assistance.  Parents  and  relatives  should 
not  surrender  the  permanent  custody  and  control  of  de- 
pendent children  without  such  approval  or  without  record 
being  made  in  a  court  of  competent  jurisdiction.  None  of 
the  rural  children  found  in  this  study  are  being  protected 
by  the  state  to  this  extent,  with  the  exception  of  12  who  are 
legal  wards  of  the  state.  (4)  A  fourth  fundamental  prin- 
ciple requires  the  recording  of  complete  histories  of  de- 
pendent children  and  of  their  parents,  based  upon  personal 
investigation  and  supervision,  for  the  guidance  of  child- 
caring  agencies,  public  or  private.  With  the  exception  of  31 
wards  of  child-caring  agencies  and  the  possible  exception  of 
25  who  have  received  care  in  institutions,  no  record  was 
found  anywhere  of  histories  of  the  parents  and  children 
covered  by  this  study.  (5)  A  fifth  fundamental  requires 
that  every  needy  child  receive  the  best  medical  and  surgical 
attention  available  and  be  instructed  in  health  and  hygiene. 
Facilities  for  safeguarding  the  health  of  children  are  totally 


RURAL  CHILD  DEPENDENCY  217 

inadequate  in  the  rural  counties  visited,  and  the  services  of 
the  nearest  physician  are  often  out  of  the  question  for  such 
reasons  as  cost,  distance,  lack  of  telephone,  and  bad  roads. 
Hospital  service  is  frequently  available  only  at  the  county 
seat  or  in  an  adjoining  county.  Public  health  nurses  and 
traveling  clinics  offer  the  best  health  care  in  rural  counties. 

What  are  the  outstanding  conclusions  with  regard  to  rural 
dependency  as  covered  by  this  study  of  conditions?  One  of 
the  most  striking  is  that  there  is  universal  indifference  to 
the  rights  of  dependent  children,  indifference  on  the  part  of 
public  officials,  and  indifference  on  the  part  of  private  citi- 
zens, who,  although  familiar  with  conditions  surrounding  a 
child  or  a  family  of  children,  dismiss  all  responsibility  for 
providing  for  their  needs.  The  generally  accepted  standards 
for  the  care  of  dependent  children  are  not  applied  in  the  case 
of  rural  children,  because  of  the  lack  of  understanding  of 
rural  folk,  lack  of  vision,  lack  of  knowledge,  and  lack  of 
means  of  transportation. 

Counteracting  this  spirit  of  indifference  is  the  hospitable 
response  made  to  the  appeal  of  mothers,  or  the  appeal  of 
children,  whom  families  receive  into  their  homes,  unwilling 
as  they  say  "to  turn  any  orphan  away."  This  hospitality, 
however,  is  seldom  accompanied  by  full  understanding  of 
the  responsibility  involved  or  by  a  sense  of  what  is  or  what 
is  not  for  the  children's  best  interests.  It  is  folly  to  believe 
that  any  home,  just  because  it  is  in  the  open  country,  is  a  good 
home  for  any  dependent  child.  It  depends  on  the  home  and 
on  the  child.  Rural  folk  may  be  kind,  they  may  be  hos- 
pitable and  fond  of  children,  yet  in  no  sense  be  the  best  folk 
available  for  raising  dependent  children. 

Perhaps  the  most  urgent  need  of  rural  dependent  children 
is  at  least  one  person  in  every  county,  capable,  accessible,  and 
vested  with  authority  to  befriend  every  dependent  child  and, 
in  cooperation  with  all  other  child-protecting  factors  in  the 
county  and  state,  responsible  for  the  best  available  care  for 
every  child  according  to  his  need.  Such  an  agent,  public  or 
private  or  both,  must  be  accessible,  which  means  that  he 


218  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

must  be  provided  with  the  most  rapid  means  of  transporta- 
tion practicable  in  his  county ;  in  some  counties  it  may  mean 
an  auto ;  in  others,  a  saddle  horse ;  but  accessible  he  must  be. 
It  is  folly  to  expect  an  officer,  however  socially  minded  he 
may  be,  to  remain  at  the  county  seat  and  know  conditions 
surrounding  children  in  the  open  country.  Until  he  goes  into 
the  country  and  makes  careful  and  thorough  investigations 
there,  he  is  not  qualified  to  determine  plans  for  the  children's 
future. 

It  is  very  obvious  that  leadership  technically  trained  for 
child-caring  work  is  not  now  available  to  rural  children  in 
many  counties.  However,  it  is  a  fact  that  in  practically 
every  county  there  is  living  at  least  one  person,  in  most 
cases  a  woman,  who  understands  children,  understands  fam- 
ily problems  and  human  nature,  and  is  willing  to  undertake, 
with  the  tactful  counsel  of  a  well-trained  state  supervisor,  the 
responsibility  of  developing  a  county-wide  program  for  the 
care  of  all  rural  dependent  children.  Everywhere  the  need 
for  her  services  is  urgent. 


PART  TWO 
DELINQUENCY  AND  NEGLECT 

INTRODUCTION 

Conditions  of  delinquency  in  the  open  country  came  under 
our  observation  in  the  course  of  the  study  of  rural  child 
dependency.  We  found  dependent  children  who  had  been 
neglected  until  they  violated  law,  and  were  then  taken  into 
court  and  legally  declared  delinquent. 

For  instance  Albert,  age  n,  left  an  orphan  when  very 
young,  lived  with  an  aged  couple  in  the  country  until 
their  home  was  broken  up,  when  he  was  obliged  to 
shift  for  himself.  He  is  bright,  keen,  with  a  frank, 
open  countenance,  an  attractive  little  fellow  above  the 
average  neglected  child  of  his  age.  We  met  Albert  at 
an  almshouse  in  charge  of  the  keeper,  who  was  acting 
as  superintendent  of  the  county  juvenile  detention  home 
because  the  almshouse  had  been  so  designated  by  court. 
Two  days  before  Christmas  of  1920,  a  railroad  police 
officer  filed  complaint  before  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
charging  that  Albert  and  five  other  boys  "did  unlaw- 
fully and  feloniously  break  and  enter  the depot 

at , County,  W.  Va.,  with  intent  to  steal 

and  carry  away  goods  stored  in  said  depot."  Albert's 
case  was  referred  to  the  juvenile  court.  He  was 
brought  to  the  county  seat,  left  in  the  county  jail  the 
night  of  Dec.  23rd,  and  on  the  24th  the  superintendent 
of  the  detention  home  took  him  to  the  almshouse  where 
he  joined  in  the  celebration  of  Christmas  Eve. 

The  juvenile  court  record  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of 
the  Circuit  Court  contains  the  following  under  date  of 
Dec.  28,  1920,  "State  of  West  Virginia  vs.  Albert 

.  Charge,  felony.  Proceeding  came  to  be  heard 

before  Judge  of  Juvenile  Court  of County  in  va- 

219 


220  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

cation  upon  complaint  and  warrant  certified  to  the  said 

Judge  by of  the  said  county.  Albert  in  his  own 

person  came,  brought  by  Superintendent County 

Detention  Home  for  Children  and  represented  by  pro- 
bation officer  says  he  is  guilty.  Nothing  being  offered 
in  delay  of  judgment,  it  is  considered  and  ordered  by 
said  Judge  that  the  said  defendant  be  and  is  hereby 
held  to  answer  an  indictment  for  the  offense  of  which 
he  stands  charged,  by  the  Grand  Jury  at  the  regular 

March,  1921,  term  of  the  Criminal  Court  of  

County.  Thereupon,  the  said  defendant  was  remanded 
to  the  custody  of  the  said  superintendent  aforesaid." 

Officials  present  at  the  juvenile  court  hearing  reported 
that  witnesses  testified  that  Albert  had  no  permanent 
home,  that  different  ones  present  had  kept  him  at  their 
homes  for  a  night  or  two.  Albert  frankly  confessed  to 
having  stolen  "some  oranges,  candy,  and  chewing  gum" 
because  he  "wanted  them."  He  "hid  them  under  the 
porch,"  then  told  the  officer  where  they  were.  At  the 
almshouse,  Albert  with  several  other  little  dependent 
boys,  occupied  a  room  in  the  men's  quarters  which  ad- 
joins the  superintendent's  living  quarters,  using  the 
same  bath-room  and  eating  in  the  same  dining-room 
with  the  old  men.  The  room  is  not  attractive  and  has 
no  furniture  except  the  beds.  True  to  boy  nature  the 
children  engage  in  various  pranks  after  they  go  to  bed, 
such  as  pillow  fights  and  jumping  from  one  bed  to  an- 
other; in  all  such  mischief  and  in  mischief  at  school, 
Albert  has  always  frankly  and  truthfully  borne  the  blame 
for  the  part  he  took  and  never  has  "told  on  the  other 
fellow."  He  has  been  manly  and  straight- for  ward  in 
all  his  relations  with  children  and  with  adults.  He  at- 
tended a  school  on  the  county  farm  in  company  with 
children  from  the  almshouse  and  from  a  nearby  chil- 
dren's home.  He  does  average  work  for  a  child  of  his 
age  and,  as  his  teacher  said,  "is  one  of  the  manliest  little 
lads  I  ever  knew." 

Fortunately,  the  case  did  not  come  before  the  grand 
jury.  After  several  months  in  the  almshouse  where 
the  lad  was  held  by  order  of  the  juvenile  court,  he  was 
placed  in  the  home  of  an  elderly  woman  and  her  un- 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  221 

married  son.  The  permanency  of  this  home  is  uncer- 
tain because  of  the  foster  mother's  age  and  the  proba- 
bility that  her  son  will  establish  a  home  of  his  own  else- 
where. 

That  we  might  better  understand  what  happens  when 
children  in  the  open  country  are  neglected,  we  made  limited 
inquiries  regarding  rural  delinquent  children  in  the  23  coun- 
ties in  West  Virginia  covered  in  the  study  of  dependency. 
We  interviewed  juvenile  judges,  justices  of  the  peace,  prose- 
cuting attorneys,  sheriffs,  constables,  probation  and  truancy 
officers ;  and  visited  detention  homes,  state  industrial  schools, 
jails  and  almshouses.  We  consulted  dockets  of  rural  jus- 
tices of  the  peace,  records  of  juvenile  courts  and  registers 
of  county  jails.  We  secured  authentic  information  regard- 
ing 20 1  delinquent  and  neglected  rural  children  from  97 
families,  having  visited  63  in  24  homes  and  places  of  deten- 
tion. They  fall  into  groups  under  two  clearly  defined  heads ; 
68,  implicated  in  wrong-doing  or  treated  as  wrong-doers, 
were  legally  declared  delinquent  by  court;  and  133  were 
neglected  largely  because  of  habitual  absence  from  school 
with  no  element  of  dependency.  Findings  are  presented 
under  six  heads,  as  follows:  (i)  Statement  of  findings  on 
delinquency.  (2)  Nature  of  delinquency.  (3)  Treatment, 
(a)  Enforcement  of  law  (b)  Justices  of  the  peace  (c) 
Juvenile  Court  (d)  Probation  (e)  Jail  as  place  of  deten- 
tion (f)  Almshouse  as  place  of  detention.  (4)  Disposition. 
(5)  Statement  of  findings  on  neglect.  (6)  Standards  and 
conclusions. 

STATEMENT   OF    FINDINGS   ON    DELINQUENCY 

Problems  of  delinquency  are  not  confined  to  urban  chil- 
dren, but  are  found  also  in  varying  degrees  of  seriousness 
among  children  in  the  open  country.  It  is  easier  in  the  city 
than  in  the  country  to  interfere  with  the  conveniences  and 
rights  of  others.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  easier  in  the 
country  to  "get  by"  with  really  serious  offenses.  Along  with 


222  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

this  greater  leeway,  goes  the  fact  that  local  and  individual 
standards  of  right  and  wrong  are  most  easily  enforced  in 
the  country  and  frequently  an  act  trivial  in  itself  may  be 
regarded  in  that  neighborhood  as  a  serious  offense  and  pun- 
ishment administered  out  of  all  proportion.  Such  differing 
standards  and  their  treatment  fail  to  develop  in  rural  chil- 
dren a  consistent  sense  of  justice  and  individual  rights,  and 
coupled  with  the  laxity  of  law  enforcement,  make  them  ill- 
prepared  for  the  adjustment  necessary  when  they  live  in  a 
closely  knit  community. 

The  delinquent  children  observed  range  from  9  to  17 
years  of  age;  40  are  boys  and  28  girls.  Many  are  also 
dependent.  It  is  easy  enough  for  any  child  to  "get  into 
trouble,"  but  the  trouble  is  much  more  serious  when  he  is 
dependent.  All  of  the  68  are  declared  to  have  violated  law 
according  to  standards  in  their  communities.  All  except 
5  have  been  arrested;  59  but  once,  g,  twice,  and  i, 
three  times.  The  offenses  committed  include  mischievous 
pranks,  sex  irregularities,  property  damage,  and  murder. 
Slightly  more  than  one-third  were  found  guilty  of  stealing  ; 
nearly  one-third  were  declared  sex  offenders,  many  of  whose 
stories  are  as  hideous  and  revolting  as  any  associated  with 
organized  vice,  and  many  show  pathetic  ignorance  of  sex 
life.  The  remaining  one  third  were  guilty  of  damage 
against  property,  "rocking  little  children,"  disturbing  relig- 
ious worship,  and  murder.  Law  provides  no  measures  for 
preventing  Delinquency  in  the  country.  Officers  of  law  act 
only  after  complaint  has  been  filed.  Enforcement  is  a  deli- 
cate and  difficult  matter  because  it  depends  on  the  willing- 
ness of  a  man  or  woman  to  file  information,  appear  in  open 
court  and  testify  against  his  neighbor.  Not  many  rural  folk 
are  willing  to  go  to  this  extent.  There  are  additional  diffi- 
culties in  making  two  or  more  journeys  to  the  county  seat 
at  the  time  of  hearing,  unless  cases  are  disposed  of  by  the 
local  justice  of  the  peace  which,  however,  is  contrary  to  law. 
Rural  justices  of  the  peace  tried  47  cases,  having  transferred 
but  three  to  juvenile  courts  as  required  by  law,  and  handled 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  223 

two  without  arrest.  Again,  in  violation  of  law,  they  are 
committing  children  to  institutions,  to  jails,  to  almshouses, 
acting  themselves  as  probation  officers  and  returning  chil- 
dren to  parents.  The  exceptional  rural  justice  may  be  quali- 
fied to  deal  with  children's  cases,  but  the  ordinary  one  is  not, 
and  his  office  is  no  place  for  any  child.  Juvenile  courts 
handled  cases  of  16  children  directly  and  three  were  adjusted 
without  arrest.  In  23  counties,  14  juvenile  courts  were  pro- 
tecting rural  children  when  family  protection  failed,  proba- 
tion service  was  provided  in  n  counties,  and  at  the  time  of 
this  study  five  probation  officers  had  wards  living  in  the 
open  country.  In  the  cases  of  more  than  one-half,  or  56 
per  cent  of  the  68  children,  no  effort  had  been  made  to  cor- 
rect the  wrongdoing  before  final  disposition  by  court.  One 
county  has  a  detention  home  and  only  one  child  was  being 
detained  in  it.  One  county  uses  a  private  children's  home  as 
a  place  for  detention  and  two  children  were  being  detained 
there.  Two  counties  have  designated  the  almshouse  as  the 
official  detention  home  for  children,  and  named  the  keeper  as 
superintendent.  Two  children  were  detained  in  almshouses. 
More  than  50  had  been  or  were  being  detained  in  county 
jails,  either  as  a  safe  place  of  keeping  pending  hearing  or 
while  awaiting  transfer  to  an  institution.  Some  had  been 
committed  to  county  jails  as  punishment  for  alleged  crimes. 
Girls  duly  committed  to  the  State  Industrial  School  are  re- 
turned to  their  home  counties  when  in  need  of  treatment  for 
venereal  disease,  and  with  others  in  their  county  are  com- 
mitted to  jails  for  compulsory  treatment.  Out  of  23  coun- 
ties, 1 8  care  for  children  in  their  jails,  and  but  two  of  these 
are  equipped  with  apartments  separate  from  those  of  adult 
prisoners,  and  only  two  provide  supervision  of  girls  by 
women.  One  rural  judge  refusing  to  violate  the  law  by 
letting  children  stay  in  the  jail,  said  "I'd  take  them  to  my 
own  home  first."  Another,  in  order  to  secure  privacy  in 
hearing  cases  involving  girls  and  women,  hears  them  in  the 
parlor  of  the  village  hotel.  The  almshouses  used  for  deten- 
tion of  children  provide  no  quarters  separate  from  the  reg- 


224  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ular  inmates.  In  one  instance  an  n -year-old  boy  ate 
food  prepared  by  an  inmate  afflicted  with  syphilis,  and  car- 
ried trays  to  old  men  afflicted  with  venereal  disease. 

The  juvenile  and  justice  of  peace  courts  handling  the 
cases  of  68  rural  children  considered  nearly  one-third,  or  30 
per  cent,  serious  enough  to  commit  the  children  to  state 
industrial  schools.  More  than  one-third,  or  40  per  cent, 
were  distributed  about  equally  between  probation,  jail,  and 
return  to  their  homes  with  no  provision  for  probation.  One 
girl  only  was  placed  under  the  supervision  of  a  woman.  The 
remaining  30  per  cent  were  placed  in  detention  homes, 
private  family  homes  or  state  hospitals,  or  simply  "returned 
to  county  of  legal  residence."  With  no  protective  feature  of 
the  law  extending  into  the  open  country ;  with  provision  for 
police  power  only  after  complaint  has  been  filed;  with  juve- 
nile courts  inconvenient  of  access ;  with  justices  of  the  peace 
easily  available  in  every  portion  of  a  county ;  and  with  no  ade- 
quate provision  for  trained  and  efficient  probation  service 
it  is  difficult  to  protect  rural  children  from  the  neglect  which 
so  often  leads  to  delinquency.  The  presence  of  at  least  one 
official  in  every  county  well  qualified  for  probation  service 
would  go  a  long  way  toward  making  it  unnecessary  to  care 
for  children  in  jails  and  almshouses  and  toward  making 
possible  a  fuller  measure  of  justice  for  all  rural  children. 

Nature  of  Delinquency.  The  stories  of  68  children 
ranging  from  9  to  17  years  of  age  reveal  in  a  limited  sense 
the  sort  of  things  rural  children  do  when  they  become  impli- 
cated in  "wrong-doing,"  as  interpreted  in  their  neighbor- 
hood. Of  these,  40  are  boys  and  28  girls,  a  ratio  of  about 
three  boys  to  two  girls. 

Offenses  vary  from  mischievous  pranks  to  serious  viola- 
tions against  property,  to  sex  offenses,  and  to  murder. 
Slightly  more  than  one-third  were  charged  with  and  found 
guilty  of  stealing  such  things  as  chickens,  canned  goods, 
brass,  bicycles,  watches,  copper  wire,  auto  tires,  flash  lights, 
gloves,  candy,  oranges,  and  home  brew,  more  specifically 
called  "old  hen."  Slightly  less  than  one-third  were  found 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  225 

guilty  of  sex  offenses,  many  as  heinous  as  those  committed 
in  cities.  The  remaining  one-third  included  damage  against 
property,  such  as  breaking  in  and  destroying  public  build- 
ings, breaking  glass  in  railroad  coaches  valued  at  $150,  and 
total  destruction  of  a  peach  orchard  by  uprooting  all  the 
trees.  Assault  consisted  of  "throwing  stones,"  or  "rocking 
little  children,"  "whipping  little  children  on  road  home  from 
school,"  and  "carried  pistol."  The  word  "incorrigible"  was 
used  but  twice  and  other  offenses  were  described  as  "staying 
out  nights,"  "ran  away,"  "lied,"  "disturbed  religious  wor- 
ship," "jumped  trains,"  "threw  switch,"  "forged  check  on 
father,"  "shot  stepfather,"  and  "murder." 

What  on  the  surface  appear  to  be  slight  offenses  may  not 
be  so  serious  in  their  immediate  as  in  their  ultimate  effects. 
It  is  common  practice  for  children  to  "rock"  each  other. 
The  writer  observed  several  such  battles  along  country  roads 
as  children  were  going  home  from  school.  Sometimes  it  was 
a  lone  conflict  between  two  children,  sometimes  between 
"sides,"  not  at  all  a  matter  for  law  and  courts  to  control, 
yet  such  things  if  allowed  to  pass  uncontrolled  may  lead  to 
bitter  hatreds  and  feuds  through  years  to  come.  In  dis- 
cussing the  disturbance  of  religious  worship,  officers  said 
that  this  took  the  form  of  "whispering,  talking  out  loud, 
giggling,  and  running  in  and  out  with  scuffling  feet."  One 
justice  of  the  peace  told  of  frequent  annoyance  by  a  thirteen- 
year-old  girl,  declaring,  "I  didn't  want  to  send  a  gal  to  jail 
so  jes'  fined  her  $3  and  warned  her  never  to  do  it  agin." 
The  gang  and  gang  spirit  diminish  in  proportion  to  the  dis- 
stance  from  the  "settlement,"  as  a  town  or  village  is  called. 
Temporary  gangs  spring  up  spontaneously  to  meet  a  definite 
situation,  but  the  organized  gang  as  known  in  and  near 
cities  is  absent  in  rural  districts  as  far  as  our  observation 
has  gone.  In  fact,  the  lack  of  gang  spirit  is  one  of  the 
deadening  phases  of  rural  child  life,  meaning  as  it  does,  lack 
of  opportunity  to  associate  closely  with  those  of  the  same 
age  and  tastes.  It  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  between  the 
acts  of  boys  who  steal  a  chicken  and  go  down  by  the  creek 


226  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

to  enjoy  a  feast,  and  of  the  boys  who  bag  20  or  30  chickens 
and  take  them  to  town  to  sell.  The  most  serious  offenses 
against  property  were  committed  by  two  or  more  acting 
together,  while  the  most  serious  thefts  were  committed  by 
individuals  acting  alone. 

The  14-year-old  boy  being  held  in  county  jail  for  shoot- 
ing his  stepfather  had  staunch  friends  in  the  officers  who 
knew  the  circumstances.  The  child  had  known  nothing 
but  "beatings  and  abuse"  and  one  officer  said,  "The  old  man 
should  have  been  killed  long  ago."  However,  during  those 
years  of  abuse,  the  child  had  no  effective  protection  from 
his  county,  or  from  his  state.  The  1 6-year-old  boy  found 
guilty  of  murdering  a  13-year-old  girl  is  defective,  the 
"fool"  of  his  neighborhood,  and  as  many  others  had 
done  for  years,  the  girl  had  made  fun  of  him.  Without 
threat,  he  concealed  himself  behind  a  tree  and  shot  her  as 
she  passed. 

Treatment.  The  families  involved  and  the  school  which 
the  children  attend  are  usually  the  first  in  the  community  to 
come  in  contact  with  "wrong-doing"  of  whatever  degree  of 
seriousness.  They  "treat"  the  offender  and  the  offense  ac- 
cording to  their  standards  of  right  and  wrong  and  usually 
settle  the  matter  unless  they  consider  it  of  sufficient  conse- 
quence to  be  handled  by  law.  Children  may  have  the  repu- 
tation of  being  "bad"  over  a  period  of  years  without  coming 
in  contact  with  the  law  because  their  conduct  does  not  have 
the  same  results  in  the  open  country  as  it  would  have  in  a 
closely  settled  city.  Offenses  do  not  inconvenience  others  or 
injure  their  rights  readily  in  a  widely  scattered  population. 
Another  result  arises  from  the  neighborliness  of  country 
people.  One  neighbor  seldom  files  complaint  against  the 
children  of  another  unless  there  has  grown  up  a  spirit  of 
hatred  and  revenge.  They  are  more  likely  to  get  together, 
settle  grievances,  and  often  require  their  children  to  work 
after  school  and  on  Saturdays  in  order  to  make  full  recom- 
pense for  damage,  with  no  thought  of  resorting  to  law.  The 
school  usually  cooperates  with  the  family  in  such  a  course 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  227 

of  action.  As  a  result,  conduct  requiring  sterner  measures 
may  be  passed  over  lightly,  while  trivial,  harmless  pranks 
may  be  over-stressed  and  made  to  appear  more  serious  than 
they  are.  Such  treatment  may  permit  unfortunate  habits  to 
become  fixed  and  may  develop  a  warped  idea  of  the  rights 
of  others.  Nevertheless,  it  is  the  most  general  "treatment" 
in  the  rural  districts  visited. 

ENFORCEMENT  OF  LAW.  What  means  does  the  law  pro- 
vide for  preventing  delinquency  and  for  handling  it  after  it 
has  occurred?  We  found  no  representative  of  the  law 
reaching  rural  children  to  prevent  delinquency  or  to  correct 
conditions  making  court  action  necessary.  The  sheriff  has 
police  power  throughout  the  county  and  acts  only  after 
complaint  has  been  filed,  and  warrant  for  arrest  issued. 
Justices  of  the  peace  and  their  constables  are  provided  in  all 
districts  of  the  county  but  they,  too,  act  only  on  filing  of 
complaint.  The  official  services  of  probation  officers  are 
restricted  to  wards  of  the  court  and  only  so  far  as  they  are 
willing  do  officers  respond  to  requests  when  court  action  is 
not  pending.  Who  is  there  then  to  prevent  delinquency 
among  rural  children  ?  No  one,  as  far  as  this  study  reveals, 
except  the  unofficial  factors  in  each  community. 

The  enforcement  of  law  is  a  very  delicate  and  difficult 
task  in  the  open  country.  Standards  of  enforcement  are 
laxer  than  in  cities  because  offenses  do  not  occasion  the 
same  degree  of  inconvenience,  and  because  neighbors  are  not 
willing  to  "make  trouble."  Officials  who  depend  upon  the 
vote  of  the  people  are  not  willing  to  stir  up  trouble,  and 
even  ministers  have  been  suddenly  known  to  lose  their  con- 
gregations and  their  financial  support  when  they  preached 
"too  plain  about  the  wrongs  in  the  neighborhood." 

JUSTICES  OF  THE  PEACE.  When  the  offense  is  serious 
enough,  or  when  it  is  considered  serious  enough,  to  resort  to 
law,  a  citizen  or  an  official  usually  files  complaint  with  the 
justice  of  the  peace  having  jurisdiction  over  the  district  in 
which  the  child  lives.  This  justice  is  elected  by  the  people 
to  handle  petty  violations  but  he  does  not  necessarily  have  a 


228  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

knowledge  of  law  or  qualities  fitting  him  to  deal  with  such 
delicate  and  intricate  matters  as  gathering  and  sifting  social 
and  legal  evidence,  passing  judgment,  and  making  decisions 
involving  the  welfare  of  little  children.  Occasionally  a  man 
is  elected  as  justice  of  the  peace  who  has  all  the  essential 
qualities  for  dealing  with  "wayward"  children,  but  he  is  the 
exception  rather  than  the  rule. 

A  kindly  old  man,  serving  his  first  term  as  justice,  com- 
mitted a  juvenile  to  the  state  industrial  school  at  the  time  of 
our  visit.  He  went  to  the  trouble  to  telephone  the  juvenile 
judge  at  the  county  seat  after  he  had  made  the  commitment, 
and  seemed  distressed  when  the  judge  said  his  order  was 
"irregular"  for  he  had  no  thought  of  violating  the  law  which 
specifies  that  justices  of  the  peace  shall  transfer  juvenile 
cases  to  the  juvenile  court.  We  learned  later  that  his  illegal 
commitment  had  been  accepted  at  the  state  school  as  are 
many,  many  other  illegal  commitments  of  juveniles  by  jus- 
tices of  the  peace.  We  visited  two  boys,  16  years  old,  in  a 
county  jail  where  they  had  been  sentenced  by  a  justice  for 
from  5  to  15  days  for  "flipping"  freight  trains.  An- 
other, a  boy  of  14,  we  found  in  a  county  jail  committed 
for  the  third  time,  his  case  each  time  handled  only  by  a 
justice  of  the  peace.  With  him  was  a  boy,  16,  committed 
for  the  second  time  by  the  same  justice.  A  girl,  16,  a  sex 
offender,  we  found  in  a  detention  home  sent  by  a  justice. 
With  few  exceptions,  the  justices  we  met  are  kind-hearted 
men  who  "mean  well,"  but  unfamiliar  with  modern  methods 
of  handling  delinquents.  Two  or  three  take  a  keen  interest 
in  their  "bad  boys"  and  tell  with  justifiable  pride  of  their 
fatherly  talks  with  them.  One  makes  a  special  point  always 
to  speak  to  all  his  boys  and  has  an  understanding  with  them 
that  no  matter  where  he  is  they  are  to  come  and  speak  to  him. 
One  justice  related  the  story  of  two  years  of  patient  personal 
supervision  over  a  boy  who  he  was  determined  should  make 
good,  his  final  commitment  to  the  industrial  school,  and 
successful  parole.  Many  of  the  girls  taken  before  a  justice 
are  guilty  of  sex  offenses.  One  fatherly  justice  inquired 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  229 

whether  some  means  might  not  be  devised  for  sealing  such 
evidence  so  as  to  prevent  its  remaining  a  public  record.  The 
office  of  the  rural  justice  is  invariably  the  loafing  place  for 
all  idle  men  in  the  neighborhood.  Frequently  it  is  dark, 
dingy,  dirty,  overheated,  unventilated,  the  air  filled  with 
stale  tobacco  smoke  and  the  floor  covered  with  old  tobacco 
juice.  Such  surroundings  do  not  create  respect  for  the 
dignity  and  justice  of  the  law  and  are  not  at  all  suitable  for 
children,  either  boys  or  girls.  In  spite  of  the  exceptional 
justice  and  his  nearness  to  the  child's  home,  making  a 
speedy  hearing  possible,  we  are  confident  there  is  no  hope  of 
making  the  justice  of  the  peace  a  satisfactory  agent  of  the 
law  for  handling  delinquent  children  and  that  his  speedy 
elimination  in  such  cases  is  much  to  be  desired. 

THE  JUVENILE  COURT.  The  court  having  jurisdiction  over 
juvenile  cases  is  intended  to  reach  all  children  alike,  irre- 
spective of  where  they  live.  In  practice,  however,  no  juve- 
nile court  in  the  counties  visited  is  reaching  rural  children 
in  proportion  to  their  need.  It  is  not  because  the  judges 
are  not  willing  to  serve  rural  as  well  as  urban  children,  but 
because  the  court  does  not  provide  facilities  for  reaching 
places  difficult  of  access.  It  is  a  question,  first,  of  a  person 
qualified  to  make  social  investigations  in  the  open  country; 
and  second,  of  the  additional  expense  for  transportation.  It 
is  difficult  for  country  folk  to  go  to  the  county  seat  where 
juvenile  court  is  usually  held.  They  prefer  to  have  the 
local  justice  of  the  peace  handle  the  matter  or  drop  it  alto- 
gether rather  than  go  to  the  trouble  of  one  or  two  journeys 
to  the  county  seat.  Another  obstacle  looms  high  in  the 
minds  of  country  folk  when  they  know  the  judge  holds 
court  in  their  county  but  four  times  a  year  and  then  for  only 
ten  days  or  two  weeks.  True  it  is  that  judges  are  quite 
willing  to  hear  juvenile  cases  any  time  "during  vacation"; 
that  many  make  long  journeys  to  remote  corners  of  their 
districts  to  hear  the  cases  of  delinquent  children;  others 
sometimes  personally  bear  the  expense  of  having  the  child 
with  all  necessary  witnesses  brought  to  the  seat  of  court,  as 


23o  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

no  public  funds  are  provided  for  this  purpose,  but  this 
involves  difficulties  not  easily  overcome.  As  a  result,  rural 
children  are  not  receiving  the  best  service  the  juvenile  court 
is  desirous  of  rendering. 

Out  of  23  counties,  14  reported  one  or  more  rural  cases  in 
juvenile  court  during  one  year;  four  reported  no  rural 
children;  and  five  have  no  records  of  any  juvenile  cases. 
One  clerk  of  the  circuit  court  in  office  20  years  thought  he 
remembered  one  juvenile  case  about  10  years  ago,  but  after 
diligent  search  through  court  records,  decided  he  was  mis- 
taken. He  did  remember  one  case  of  legal  adoption,  about 
12  years  ago,  and  verified  his  memory  by  the  record.  With- 
out exception  in  counties  visited,  the  judges  handling  juve- 
nile cases  were  the  highest  type  of  officials  responsible  for 
the  care  of  children  in  their  community.  Again,  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  administration;  delinquent  children,  though  remote 
from  the  seat  of  justice,  are  worth  the  additional  expense  of 
one  or  more  competent  referees  who  could  hear  cases  in 
different  parts  of  the  county  subject  to  review  by  the  judge 
as  necessity  requires,  and  of  a  probation  officer  qualified  and 
equipped  with  the  most  rapid  means  of  transportation  prac- 
tical in  his  county. 

PROBATION.  It  has  wisely  been  said,  "On  the  soundness 
of  its  probation  service,  the  juvenile  court  system  stands  or 
falls."  A  well  qualified  probation  officer  available  in  every 
portion  of  every  county  is  the  first  essential  equipment 
necessary  to  enable  the  juvenile  court  to  serve  delinquent 
children  in  the  open  country.  More  than  half  the  children 
had  no  friendly  officer  to  assist  the  judge  in  gathering  all 
the  social  and  legal  evidence  concerning  each  child  and  his 
misconduct,  and  to  assist  the  child  and  his  parents  in  cor- 
recting the  causes  of  his  delinquency.  Less  than  one-half 
received  some  kind  of  friendly  supervision  before  the  final 
order  of  the  court  was  entered.  These  included  five  chil- 
dren placed  under  the  supervision  of  a  probation  officer ;  10 
under  a  truancy  officer;  2  paroled  to  their  fathers;  one  to 
his  mother;  one  to  his  grandmother;  3  in  charge  of  the 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  231 

state  children's  agent;  5  in  charge  of  friends;  and  3  sent  to 
hospitals  for  treatment. 

Out  of  23  counties,  10  have  paid  probation  officers  and 
one  a  volunteer.  Four  are  qualified  by  training  and  experi- 
ence to  make  thorough  investigations  and  supervise  delin- 
quent children.  Only  one  officer  is  a  woman.  Five  had 
rural  children  under  supervision  at  the  time  of  this  study. 
The  most  effective  service  was  being  rendered  by  full-time 
officers  having  jurisdiction  also  in  well  organized  cities. 
Part-time  officers  in  purely  rural  counties  or  in  counties 
with  no  well  developed  idea  of  juvenile  court  work  were 
invariably  failing  to  reach  rural  children  with  any  well  de- 
fined program.  An  officer  who  is  paid  $300  a  year  claims 
to  know  his  county  very  thoroughly,  having  lived  on  a  farm 
there  for  over  40  years.  He  said  he  couldn't  remember  ever 
having  known  a  really  bad  country  boy  because  "Farm  boys 
have  to  work  so  hard  they  are  too  tired  at  night  to  cut  up 
deviltry."  Two  kindly  old  men  are  known  in  their  counties 
as  friends  of  "poor  children"  and  doubtless  secure  some 
satisfactory  results,  but  their  idea  of  service  is  confined  to 
two  things,  "getting  'em  good  homes,"  and  "sending  'em  to 
the  reform  school." 

Effective  rural  probation  service  is  possible  as  evi- 
denced in  two  instances.  Dorothy,  age  14,  lives  n 
miles  from  the  county  seat.  Her  father,  a  truck  gar- 
dener, has  a  well  kept  comfortable  home.  With  an 
older  brother,  Dorothy  attends  the  country  school  regu- 
larly, and  is  now  in  the  eighth  grade.  Complaints  were 
made  to  the  probation  officer  that  the  girl  was  going  to 
rough  country  dances  with  men  of  questionable  char- 
acter, frequently  staying  out  all  night.  After  careful 
inquiry,  the  probation  officer  found  that  the  complaints 
were  justified  and  that  the  girl's  father  and  mother 
were  having  serious  differences  over  this  very  matter. 
The  father,  knowing  the  facts,  sternly  objected  to  her 
continuing  to  go  out,  but  the  mother  helped  her  to 
secrete  her  clothing  in  the  barn  where  she  dressed  for 


232  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

the  dance  and  changed  again  before  coming  into  the 
house.  The  probation  officer  took  Dorothy  to  the  de- 
tention home  at  the  county  seat.  The  case  was  heard 
privately  in  the  judge's  office,  only  witnesses  being  ad- 
mitted. Dorothy  was  put  on  three  years'  probation. 
She  reports  either  in  person  or  by  telephone  every  Sat- 
urday, and  as  the  probation  officer  said,  bids  fair  to 
escape  delinquency  but  should  have  a  woman  rather 
than  a  man  officially  to  supervise  her  and  her  parents. 

Jack,  13,  as  ringleader  of  five,  stole  home  brew  out 
of  a  cave  in  his  father's  back  yard,  took  it  to  an  empty 
shack,  one-half  mile  away,  where  all  became  intoxicated 
and  completely  destroyed  a  peach  orchard  valued  at 
$150.  It  was  their  "first  offense."  Following  arrest, 
the  probation  officer  attempted  in  vain  to  secure  co- 
operation of  Jack's  father  voluntarily  to  pay  the  dam- 
age. He  refused  and  threatened  the  officers  with  the 
result  that  he  was  arrested,  and  sentenced  to  15  days  in 
the  county  jail.  Jack  was  taken  to  the  detention  home 
pending  disposition  of  his  father's  case.  Both  father 
and  Jack  were  put  on  probation  and  required  to  make 
good  the  damage.  Later  the  probation  officer  removed 
Jack  from  his  parent's  home  because  of  "bad  surround- 
ings." He  is  now  in  a  good  farm  home,  attending 
school  regularly.  The  probation  officer  visits  him  or 
requires  him  to  report  by  letter  or  in  person  every  week. 

JAIL  AS  PLACE  OF  DETENTION.  Eighteen  out  of  23  coun- 
ties care  for  juveniles  in  their  county  jails.  One  county  has 
a  detention  home  and  one  uses  a  private  children's  home  as 
such.  In  answer  to  our  inquiry,  one  juvenile  judge  in  a 
rural  county  said,  "Keep  a  juvenile  in  our  jail  ?  I'd  take  him 
to  my  own  home  first."  He  proceeded  in  this  wise,  "Sup- 
pose we'd  put  Roy  in  jail  this  afternoon.  There  would  be 
only  one  place  for  him,  with  the  other  prisoners.  To-day 
we  have  three  men  prisoners,  one  charged  with  murder,  the 
black  man  who  shot  at  three  officers  last  night,  and  a  sex 
pervert.  Put  Roy  with  them?  I  hate  to  believe  any  man 
who  has  taken  the  oath  of  his  office  would  be  guilty  of  such 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  233 

a  crime  against  the  boy."  Roy,  15,  had  been  brought  to  the 
juvenile  court  by  a  rural  justice  of  the  peace  charged  with 
carrying  a  pistol.  With  five  brothers  and  sisters,  he  had 
been  an  orphan  five  years.  They  secured  good  homes. 
Roy  lived  with  his  aged  grandmother  in  the  mountains. 
The  juvenile  judge  sent  for  the  man  in  whose  home  one  of 
Roy's  sisters  is  living  and  asked  him  to  take  charge  of  the 
boy  pending  the  hearing  a  week  hence.  The  man  willingly 
granted  the  judge's  request. 

Two  jails  in  large  cities  and  one  in  a  rural  village  had 
rooms  separate  from  those  occupied  by  the  prisoners  in 
which  juveniles  were  kept.  Others  provided  one  kind  of 
accommodations  for  all  alike. 

A  girl,  age  16,  from  the  country,  was  committed  to  a 
county  jail  for  a  total  of  49  days  for  treatment  for 
venereal  disease.  Neglected  in  early  childhood,  she  had 
been  committed  to  the  industrial  school  at  14,  and  dis- 
missed in  December,  1920.  Through  the  service  of  a 
public  health  officer,  she  was  apprehended  and  sent  to  a 
hospital  for  treatment.  She  made  her  escape  a  number 
of  times  and  was  committed  to  jail  four  times  serving 
terms  of  24,  10,  10  and  5  days.  On  the  day  of  our 
visit  to  the  county  jail  where  she  was  detained,  she  was 
being  taken  to  a  state  hospital  for  observation  and 
diagnosis,  and  for  the  first  time  in  all  these  years  she 
is  being  studied  in  an  effort  to  determine  the  causes  of 
her  conduct. 

In  another  rural  county  where  we  inquired  about  the 
holding  of  children  in  jail,  the  probation  officer,  the  Red 
Cross  president  and  a  local  children's  agent  for  the  state  all 
reported  that  no  juveniles  were  ever  kept  there.  One  active 
in  civic  and  religious  interests  in  the  city  emphasized  his 
reply  with,  "We  wouldn't  think  of  such  a  thing."  The 
writer  went  direct  from  his  office  to  the  jail  and  found  two 
boys,  one  16  who  had  been  there  five  weeks,  and  one  n  there 
three  weeks,  and  with  the  help  of  the  sheriff  took  from  the 
jail  register  the  names  of  six  additional  juveniles  admitted 


234  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

within  a  period  of  12  months.  The  local  workers  were 
without  doubt  sincere,  but  they  just  hadn't  known  and  had 
not  thought  of  finding  out  for  themselves.  The  boy,  n, 
was  from  the  country  and  had  been  committed  by  a  justice 
of  the  peace  for  the  theft  of  $20.  His  father,  dead  five 
years,  and  his  mother  supporting  three  children  by  washing, 
had  not  been  able  to  control  him.  Twice  he  had  been  ar- 
rested and  twice  returned  to  his  mother.  The  third  time  he 
was  committed  to  jail  by  the  justice  of  the  peace,  and  the 
plan  was  to  return  him  to  a  married  sister  who  lived  near 
town  where  the  officers  could  watch  him.  He  had  not  at 
any  time  been  placed  in  the  custody  of  the  probation  officer. 
The  1 6-year-old  boy  had  stolen  copper  wire,  had  broken 
jail,  and  was  awaiting  trial. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  a  jailer  who  said  he  had  no  idea 
how  many  juveniles  they  had  had  in  a  year,  but  acknowl- 
edged that  it  was  a  large  number,  we  found  26  under  18 
years  registered  during  a  twelve-month  period.  They  in- 
clude six  children  age  n,  three  of  whom  were  "repeaters" 
as  many  as  four  times;  four  aged  12  and  13  with  one  three 
times  a  repeater ;  eight,  14  and  15 ;  and  four  aged  16  and  17, 
all  repeaters.  Two  of  the  four  whose  ages  were  not  recorded 
were  four  times  repeaters. 

Though  in  violation  of  law,  children  are  being  held  in 
county  jails  pending  hearing  or  transfer  to  institutions,  and 
are  being  sentenced  to  jail  in  punishment  for  alleged  crime. 
In  counties  with  no  detention  home,  no  provision  is  made  to 
house  delinquents  anywhere  at  public  expense.  "A  jail  is 
no  place  for  a  child;  it  breeds  criminals,"  declares  the  Mis- 
souri Children's  Code  Commission. 

ALMSHOUSE  AS  PLACE  OF  DETENTION.  Two  counties  out 
of  23  have  officially  designated  the  almshouse  as  the  county 
detention  home  for  children.  With  only  two  others  pro- 
viding detention  homes,  in  fact  with  only  one  detention 
home  and  one  private  home  used  for  detention  in  the  state, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  almshouses  are  used  for  the  deten- 
tion of  delinquent  as  well  as  dependent  children.  An  effec- 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  235 

tive  system  of  probation  service  available  to  every  juvenile 
court  would  help  do  away  with  many  of  the  difficulties  in 
securing  suitable  places  of  detention  for  children.  One 
rural  county  contemplates  boarding  delinquents  in  carefully 
selected  family  homes  willing  to  assume  that  responsibility 
for  a  fair  payment.  Others  might  make  an  agreement  with 
a  private  institution  while  in  a  few  instances  two  or  three 
adjoining  counties  might  jointly  maintain  a  detention  home. 

Disposition.  What  disposition  of  the  68  rural  children 
was  made  by  the  courts  responsible  for  protecting  them? 
Nearly  one-third,  or  30  per  cent,  were  committed  to  a  state 
industrial  school.  Without  doubt  this  large  number  is  due  to 
at  least  three  things:  first,  because  offenses  do  not  always 
bring  the  child  to  the  attention  of  the  court  until  they  are 
sufficiently  serious  and  deep-seated  to  require  drastic  meas- 
ures; second,  because  rural  girls  are  seldom  subjected  to 
arrest  except  for  sex  offenses  with  which  rural  folks  are  not 
able  to  cope  in  their  own  homes ;  third,  because  many  rural 
officials  do  not  know  what  else  to  do  and  follow  the  easiest 
way  of  ridding  their  community  of  the  "bad  child."  Until 
the  possibilities  of  probation  service  are  understood  in  rural 
counties,  commitment  in  unnecessarily  large  numbers  to  insti- 
tutions may  be  expected. 

One  boy,  14,  a  ward  of  the  state,  had  run  away  from  four 
foster  homes,  was  a  sex  offender,  and  guilty  of  stealing  and 
lying.  Officials  in  the  county  of  his  last  legal  residence  gave 
a  formal  receipt  showing  his  arrival  at  the  court  house; 
then  what  ?  The  sheriff  took  him  in  charge  and  disapproved 
of  their  keeping  him  at  the  jail,  so  placed  him  with  a  friend 
on  a  farm.  No  one  had  clearly  in  mind  who  was  legal  cus- 
todian of  his  person  and  future  welfare.  Again,  at  least 
one  person  in  every  rural  county  well  qualified  to  champion 
the  cause  of  any  child  in  need,  would  be  of  invaluable  assist- 
ance to  the  court  and  do  much  to  remove  many  difficulties 
now  experienced  in  providing  adequate  care  for  all  children. 


236  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 


STATEMENT  OF  FINDINGS  ON   NEGLECT 

Neglected  children  include  any  under  18  years  growing 
up  without  protection  from  disease  and  without  medical 
care;  without  protection  from  abandonment;  without  suit- 
able guardians ;  without  education,  wholesome  play  and  rec- 
reation; and  without  work  suited  to  their  strength  and 
ability.  Legal  neglect  is  usually  confined  to  wilful  acts  on 
the  part  of  parents  or  guardians.  We  maintain  that  children 
suffer  whether  the  neglect  be  wilful  or  due  to  ignorance  or 
incapacity  on  the  part  of  parents,  or  to  lack  of  opportunity. 

As  to  the  number  of  neglected  children  in  the  open  coun- 
try, no  reliable  data  are  available.  In  this  study  we  found 
no  instances  of  rural  children  legally  declared  neglected. 
Without  doubt,  large  numbers  of  dependent  rural  children 
are  neglected :  the  tramp  children  drifting  from  one  home  to 
another  are  grossly  neglected,  as  are  many  living  with  rela- 
tives, in  foster  and  in  hit-or-miss  homes,  in  almshouses,  in 
jails,  and  in  their  own  family  groups.  We  confine  our 
classification  to  children  belonging  to  families  in  no  way  de- 
pendent upon  public  or  private  relief  in  the  counties,  and  to 
neglect  resulting  from  habitual  illegal  absence  from  school. 
In  practically  every  county  of  the  23  visited  some  rural  chil- 
dren were  reported  as  never  attending  school.  When  we 
group  the  children  according  to  information  secured,  we 
found  133  belonging  to  24  families,  neither  dependent  nor 
delinquent,  who  were  not  attending  school.  They  include 
families  scattered,  one  or  two  in  a  neighborhood;  they 
include  whole  districts  where  school  spirit  is  lacking,  and 
slum  neighborhoods  where  cheap  land  or  squatter's  rights 
attract  shiftless,  ignorant  parents  who  defy  law  in  any  form. 

Out  of  133  children,  53  have  not  attended  school  this 
year ;  39  are  reported  by  the  school  and  by  their  parents 
never  to  have  attended.  One  truancy  officer  reported  20  in 
one  district  who  had  not  attended  two  consecutive  days 
during  the  year.  Two  boys,  13  and  14,  left  school  and  were 
illegally  employed.  Two  girls,  14  and  15,  not  legally  ex- 
cused, considered  themselves  "too  big"  to  go  to  school. 


RURAL  CHILD  DELINQUENCY  237 

STANDARDS  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

This  study  shows  that  many  children  living  in  the  open 
country  are  deprived  of  protection  from  those  forms  of 
neglect  which  lead  to  ignorance,  wrong-doing,  delinquency, 
and  often  to  crime.  All  children  are  entitled  to  certain 
minimum  standards  of  care  to  insure  protection  to  all  alike. 

Measured  by  the  standards  set  forth  in  the  introduction 
to  this  volume,  rural  children  are  not  protected  from  neglect 
or  delinquency.  Social  work  for  all  children  is  not  found 
in  rural  districts;  outside  of  the  State  Board  of  Children's 
Guardians,  the  work  of  county  farm  and  home  demonstra- 
tion agents,  the  schools  and  the  juvenile  court,  no  group  is 
organized  and  none  of  these  is  equipped  to  reach  rural 
children  in  any  numbers.  Wholesome  recreation  as  a  pre- 
ventive of  delinquency  is  generally  lacking;  few  teachers 
and  club  leaders  are  attempting  to  meet  the  need,  but  to  a 
great  extent  play  is  looked  upon  as  a  device  of  Satan  to 
tempt  idle  boys  and  girls,  while  parents  often  consider  it 
foolish  to  engage  with  their  children  in  any  kind  of  games. 
The  justice  of  the  peace  as  a  juvenile  judge  should  be  abol- 
ished, and  the  machinery  of  the  juvenile  court  made  available 
to  every  child  in  the  open  country  through  a  carefully  chosen 
referee  and  well  developed  program  of  probation  service. 
In  rural  counties,  an  efficient  officer  of  the  juvenile  court 
would  be  looked  to  for  advice  in  solving  all  kinds  of  prob- 
lems pertaining  to  children.  He  would  be  the  logical  person 
to  make  thorough  inquiry  and  act  for  the  best  interests  of 
each  child,  preventing  the  necessity  for  court  action  whenever 
possible.  Protective  agents  well  qualified  for  the  task  and 
supported  by  public  funds  cannot  be  provided  in  every  rural 
county  in  the  course  of  a  few  months.  But  in  every  county 
there  is  need  for  a  year-round  campaign  of  education  as  to 
conditions  of  rural  child  life  and  means  for  meeting  all  the 
needs  of  rural  children,  emphasizing  the  human  value  as  far 
outweighing  the  question  of  dollars  and  cents. 


CHAPTER  VI 

TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD 
Hettie  L.  Hazlett 

How  is  the  progress  of  a  state  in  child  care  to  be  judged? 
By  laws  passed  "creating"  welfare  institutions,  but  providing 
no  administration  or  funds  to  make  them  possible?  By 
glowing  pictures  painted  of  a  heyday  that  is  to  come  at  some 
future  date  with  no  attempt  made  to  bridge  the  gaps  that 
confront  us  here  and  now  ? 

A  state  must  be  judged  by  its  foresight  in  meeting  the 
conditions  of  to-day  with  not  only  wise  legislation  but  ample 
provision  for  administration  so  that  the  full  benefit  of  its 
program  may  be  enjoyed  by  every  child. 

The  other  chapters  recommend  to  the  state  just  how  it  can 
install  the  machinery  for  improving  conditions  but  what  of 
the  dynamo — that  is  the  money — which  must  be  furnished 
to  run  this  machinery  ?  Taxation  has  been  for  centuries  the 
method  of  procuring  funds  for  public  purposes.  What  then 
are  the  sources  of  revenue  in  West  Virginia?  How  are 
taxes  levied  and  collected?  What  plans  are  made  for  the 
distribution  of  these  moneys  to  insure  care,  protection,  edu- 
cation, and  development  to  children  ? 


238 


PART  ONE 

SOURCES   OF   INCOME  TO  THE  STATE 

I.  General  State  Funds. 

1.  A  general  property  tax:  that  is  to  say,  a  levy  based 
on  the  assessed  value  of 

A.  Real  estate 

B.  Personal  property 

C.  Public  utility  property. 

This  levy  must  not  exceed  ten  cents  on  the  hundred 
dollars  for  general  state  purposes.  If  the  neces- 
sity arises,  extra  levies  can  be  made  on  the  basis  of 
the  same  assessment  but  only  by  an  act  of  the  legis- 
lature. This  was  done  in  the  case  of  the  Virginia 
debt  when  an  extra  levy  of  ten  cents  was  authorized 
to  take  care  of  the  bonds  issued  in  payment  of  that 
debt. 

2.  An  annual  state  license  tax  on  charters  issued  to 
corporations  for  the  privilege  of  carrying  on  business. 

3.  A  special  land  tax  on  corporations — an  annual  tax 
of  five  cents  per  acre  for  each  additional  acre  over 
10,000  held  by  any  corporation. 

4.  Inheritance  taxes — for  the  transmission  of  property 
by  inheritance. 

5.  A  special  excise  tax  on  corporations.    This  is  a  profit 
tax  on  business,  but  now  eliminated  by  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  gross  sales  tax — that  is,  a  tax  levied  on  all 
sales  made  within  the  state. 

6.  Fees: 

A.  Those  accruing  in  the  state  auditor's  office  for 
handling  delinquent  real  estate  taxes  and  for 
issuing    charters    to,    for    instance,    insurance 
agencies. 

B.  Those  accruing  in  the  secretary  of  state's  office 
for  the  use  of  the  state  seal  and  for  the  secre- 

239 


240  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

tary's  acting  as  statutory  attorney  for  foreign 
corporations. 

C.  Those  accruing  in  the  office  of  the  commissioner 
of  banking  in  payment  of  inspection  and  exami- 
nation of  state  banks. 

7.  A  tax  on  insurance  written  and  a  fee  for  issuing 
certificates  of  authority.    The  former  a  gross  income 
tax  applicable  to  all  insurance  written  in  the  state 
and  the  latter  a  tax  for  the  privilege  of  writing  in- 
surance. 

8.  Sale  of  books  in  the  secretary  of  state's  office :  West 
Virginia  Codes,  acts  of  the  legislature,  etc. 

9.  Collection  from  counties  for  support  of  inmates  in 
industrial  homes. 

10.  A  privilege  tax  on  transportation  of  oil  and  gas. 
This  tax  was  abolished  in  1921.  No  revenue  was 
collected  under  it.  The  suits  testing  its  constitution- 
ality are  still  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals  of  West 
Virginia  held  the  act  to  be  constitutional  but  to  apply 
only  to  intrastate  business. 

II.  School  Fund. 

1.  A  state  capitation  tax.    This  tax  applies  only  to  male 
voters  and  is  limited  by  the  constitution  to  one  dollar 
for  school  purposes  and  one  dollar  for  roads. 

2.  Fines  imposed  in  the  circuit,  criminal  and  justice  of 
the  peace  courts. 

3.  Fines  collected  by  the  game  and  fish  warden. 

4.  Interest   on   the    "irreducible   school    fund."     This 
school  fund  is  limited  to  a  million  dollars  and  cannot 
be  expended  but  is  invested  and  the  interest  is  ap- 
plied to  the  general  school  fund. 

5.  Interest  on  deposits  of  state  moneys  in  various  banks. 

6.  State  fees  collected  on: 

A.  Marriage  licenses. 

B.  Forfeitures,  i.e.,  forfeiture  made  in  case  prop- 
erty or  portion  of  property  has  been  withheld 
from  the  assessor. 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  241 

C.  Privilege  of  conducting  certain  business,  i.e., 
drug  stores,  cigar  stores,  etc. 

D.  Sale  of  delinquent  land  by  the  county  sheriff. 

E.  Sale  and  redemption  of  forfeited  land  by  the 
commissioner  of  school  lands. 

F.  Redemption  of  delinquent  lands  by  the  auditor. 

7.  A  tax  collected  from  teachers  for  examination  fees, 
institute  fees,  and  emergency  fees. 

8.  A  tax  on  national  forest  reserves  paid  by  the  federal 
government  for  any  land  owned  by  the  federal  gov- 
ernment in  the  state. 

9.  The  sale  of  confiscated  automobiles  seized  for  viola- 
tion of  the  prohibition  laws. 

10.  Direct  appropriation  made  by  the  legislature  for 
school  purposes. 

III.  Road  Fund. 

1.  License  fees  for 

A.  Automobiles 

B.  Automobile  dealers 

C.  Motorcycles 

D.  Chauffeurs 

E.  Special  privileges  (for  extra  heavy  loads). 

2.  Sale  of  blue  prints  and  auto  directories. 

3.  Federal  aid  for  roads. 

4.  Bond  issues — for  any  emergency  arising  which  can- 
not be  met  from  current  revenues,  state  bonds  may  be 
issued,  but  only  when  authorized  by  a  constitutional 
amendment. 

SOURCES   OF   INCOME  TO  THE   COUNTY 

I.  A  general  property  tax,  that  is  to  say,  a  levy  based 
on  the  assessed  value  of : 

1.  Real  estate. 

2.  Personal  property. 

3.  Public  utility  property. 

II.  Earnings  in  the  sheriff's  office,  in  the  county  courts, 

and  in  the  circuit  courts. 
III.  Interest  from  county  depositories. 


242  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

IV.  Delinquent  taxes  and  redemption  sales. 
V.  Forfeitures  for  failure  to  return  property  for  tax- 
ation. 

VI.  Balance  due  from  the  fund  held  by  the  sheriff. 
VII.  Dog  tax. 

If  a  dog  kills  a  sheep,  the  sheep  is  paid  for  out  of 
this  fund;  if  the  sheep  however  is  killed  by  any 
other  animal  or  in  any  other  way,  the  state  does  not 
pay  for  it. 
VIII.  Bond  issues. 

A  bond  issue  for  special  purposes  must  be  author- 
ized by  a  vote  of  the  people. 

SOURCES   OF   INCOME  TO  THE  SCHOOL  DISTRICT 

I.  A  general  property  tax;  that  is  to  say,  a  levy  based 
on  the  assessed  value  of 

1.  Real  estate. 

2.  Personal  property. 

3.  Public  utility  property. 

II.  Moneys  received  from  residents  of  other  districts  for 
tuition. 

III.  Sheriff's  tax  redemption. 

IV.  Personal  property  taxes  reiurneu  as  delinquent  in 

former  settlements  and  collected  in  subsequent  years. 
V.  Sale  of  school  books. 
VI.  State  aid  to  schools. 

Each  of  these  three  units,  that  is  to  say,  the  state,  the 
county,  and  the  district,  has  special  funds  into  which  the 
taxes  assigned  to  it  fall  regularly. 

The  state  has : 

I.  A  general  state  fund  which  can  be  expended-  only 
for  the  payment  of  appropriations  made  by  the 
legislature. 
II.  A  special  state  fund  used  for  the  maintenance  of 

the  penal  institutions. 

III.  A  general  school  fund  which  maintains  the  depart- 
ment of  free  schools,  i.e.,  the  salaries  of  the  state 
superintendent  and  his  assistants,  the  compensa- 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  243 

tion  of  institute  instructors,  expenses  of  the  board 
of  education,  expenses  of  uniform  examinations, 
salaries  of  county  superintendents,  the  cast  of  cer- 
tification and  publication  of  delinquent  taxes,  and 
the  distribution  of  school  moneys  to  school  dis- 
tricts. 
IV.  The  school  fund  (see  "Sources  of  Income  to  the 

State,"  II,  4). 

V.  A  state  road  fund  maintains  the  state  road  com- 
mission. 
VI.  Moneys  belonging  to  the  counties,  districts,  and 

municipalities. 

VII.  Sinking  fund  for  the  Virginia  debt. 
VIII.  Workingmen's  compensation  fund.  Cost  and 
maintenance  of  this  fund  and  payments  of  the 
benefits  awarded  by  the  compensation  commis- 
sioner, carry  themselves  from  the  premiums  col- 
lected from  the  payrolls  of  employing  companies. 

The  county  has : 

I.  A  regular  county  fund  for  taking  care  of  the  general 
expenses,  which  may  be  disbursed  only  by  the  county 
court. 

II.  A  main  county  road  fund  to  take  care  of  the  main- 
tenance and  building  of  county  roads. 

III.  A   county   road   and   bridge   fund  to   take  care  of 
bridges  on  county  roads. 

IV.  A  district  road  fund  for  helping  individual  districts 

with  the  maintenance  and  building  of  roads. 

The  district,  which  is  the  main  school  administrative  unit, 
has  its  money  divided  into  funds  which  pertain  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  free  schools : 

I.  A  fund  for  new  buildings — a  levy  not  to  exceed 
20  cents  on  the  $100  valuation  for  purchasing  lands 
and  erecting  buildings,  for  the  purchase  and  remod- 
eling of  buildings,  and  building  additions  to  school- 
houses,  and  for  furnishing  and  equipping  them. 
II.  A  fund  for  the  maintenance  of  old  buildings,  i.e. 
general  running  expenses. 


244  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

III.  A  teachers'  fund  for  maintaining  the  schools  in  the 
district  for  the  minimum  term  fixed  by  law.    In  case 
this  is  not  enough  to  pay  minimum  salaries  to  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  teachers  for  the  minimum  term,  the 
board  of  education  shall  make  an  additional  levy  to 
cover  the  deficiency. 

IV.  A  high-school  building  fund. 
V.  A  high-school  teachers'  fund. 


DIAGRAM  OF  THE  SOURCES  AND  DISTRIBUTION 
OF  TAXES  IN  WEST  VIRGINIA 


TAXES 


DISTRIBUTION 


STATE 


PART  TWO 

In  the  state,  taxes  are  levied  by  act  of  the  legislature. 
This  is  in  the  form  of  a  budget  bill  or  supplementary  budget 
bill.  They  are  collected  by  the  state  auditor,  under  the 
supervision  of  the  tax  commissioner.  In  the  county,  the 
county  court,  or  board  of  commissioners,  meets  the  second 
Tuesday  in  August  and  fixes  the  new  levy  based  on  assess- 
ments of  property  made  by  the  assessor  for  the  current 
year;  the  taxes  are  then  collected  for  the  county  by  the 
sheriff.  As  the  taxes  collected  for  the  district  go  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  free  schools,  they  are  levied  by  the  dif- 
ferent boards  of  education,  and  to  save  expense  and  dupli- 
cation of  effort,  are  also  collected  by  the  county  sheriff  and 
credited  to  the  funds  of  the  various  school  districts. 

As  the  main  source  of  revenue  to  the  county  and  the  dis- 
trict, and  in  a  large  part  to  the  state,  is  the  general  property 
tax,  that  is,  the  direct  levy  based  on  the  assessed  value  of  real, 
personal  and  public  utility  property,  it  is  well  to  consider 
carefully  the  system  and  its  efficiency . 

In  order  to  evaluate  public  utility  property  uniformly  this 
assessment  is  made  by  a  Board  of  Public  Works  which 
consists  of  the  governor,  the  attorney-general,  the  auditor, 
the  treasurer,  the  state  superintendent  of  free  schools,  the 
secretary  of  state,  and  the  commissioner  of  agriculture.  The 
assessment  is  made  on  the  basis  of  a  brief  of  the  financial 
statement  of  each  corporation  prepared  by  the  tax  commis- 
sioner's office. 

The  assessment  of  real  and  personal  property  is  more 
complex.  Each  county  in  the  state  constitutes  an  assessment 
district  and  elects  one  assessor  for  a  term  of  four  years.  If 
the  population  of  the  county  is  large,  assistant  assessors  may 

246 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  247 

be  appointed  by  the  assessor.  The  number  of  assistants 
varies  according  to  population,  the  maximum  number  being 
nine  in  counties  of  over  70,000. 

Up  to  the  1921  session  of  the  legislature  the  assessment 
period  ranged  from  April  i  to  July  i.  During  this  period 
each  assessor  or  assistant  must  call  upon  every  person  in  the 
territory  liable  to  assessment  and  secure  a  full  and  correct 
description  of  that  individual's  real  and  personal  property. 
The  property  is  then  assessed  presumably  at  its  "true  and 
actual  value,"  that  is  to  say,  at  the  price  for  which  such 
property  would  sell  if  voluntarily  offered  for  sale  by  the 
owner.  It  has  been  almost  impossible  to  gather  this  de- 
tailed information  over  the  large  territory  assigned  to  each 
assessor  or  assistant  during  the  short  period  allowed  for 
making  the  assessment.  As  a  result,  in  most  instances  the 
assessment  of  the  previous  year  was  copied  and  no  new 
assessment  made.  However,  this  period  has  been  extended, 
making  the  time  limit  over  which  assessments  shall  be  made 
from  January  i  to  June  20. 

The  Board  of  Public  Works  appoints  three  citizens  in 
each  county  for  a  term  of  six  years  to  constitute  for  the 
county  a  Board  of  Review  and  Equalization,  with  the  clerk 
of  the  county  court  as,  ex-officio,  the  clerk  of  the  board. 
This  board  meets  annually  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing  and 
equalizing  the  assessments  of  the  county  returned  by  the 
assessor.  The  time  and  place  of  holding  the  meetings  of  the 
board  are  published  in  the  newspapers  three  weeks  in  ad- 
vance so  that  any  person  thinking  he  has  been  unfairly 
assessed  can  bring  his  complaint  before  it. 

"It  will  thus  be  seen  that  each  county  forms  in  reality  an 
independent  assessment  district  for  valuing  property,  in 
which  the  assessor  acts  in  the  first  instance,  but  the  board  is 
the  final  arbiter  in  the  matter  of  assessments,  unless  an 
appeal  is  taken  from  the  value  as  fixed  by  the  board  to  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  county.  There  are  then  55  assessment 
units  in  the  state  for  the  valuing  of  property,  none  of  which 
is  in  any  way  responsible  or  dependent  upon  the  action  of 


248  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

another.  If  their  judgments  coincide,  uniformity  results ;  if 
they  do  not,  there  is  inequality  in  the  assessment." 

Previous  to  1921,  the  only  supervision  outside  of  the 
county  was  that  of  the  state  tax  commissioner  whose  powers 
were  only  advisory  and  directory.  The  legislature,  however, 
has  now  given  the  tax  commissioner  power  to  employ,  with 
the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  experts  to 
examine  and  report  upon  the  different  kinds  and  classes  of 
property  with  the  idea  of  furnishing  more  accurate  informa- 
tion upon  which  to  base  the  work  of  valuing  and  assessing 
property.  Recently,  also,  provision  has  been  made  for  an 
annual  meeting  of  the  assessors  to  be  held  during  the  month 
preceding  the  beginning  of  the  assessment  period.  This  is 
done  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  cooperation  among 
the  assessors,  giving  an  opportunity  for  the  exchange  of 
ideas,  and  unifying  the  standards  of  property  values. 

There  should  be  a  general  re-assessment  of  real  estate 
values  at  least  every  four  years  and  a  local  readjustment 
annually.  Up  to  the  present,  real  property  has  been  assessed 
in  many  of  the  counties  at  approximately  30  per  cent  of  its 
actual  value.  It  is  not  surprising  to  note,  then,  that  for  the 
years  1918  and  1919  while  there  was  an  increase  in  the 
assessment  of  from  2  to  10  per  cent  there  was  an  increase 
of  39  per  cent  in  the  total  tax  levy. 

Such  changes,  however,  as  have  been  made  in  the  past 
year,  increasing  the  number  of  assistants,  increasing  the 
assessment  period,  and  providing  for  expert  valuation  super- 
vision, show  not  only  a  desire  to  rectify  the  previous  defects 
of  the  system  but  point  the  way  to  a  more  equitable  assess- 
ment of  property  at  its  "true  and  actual  value"  as  judged  by 
the  standards  of  the  current  year  and  not  by  those  of  two, 
five,  or  ten  years  previous.  It  will  also  make  possible 
through  a  higher  assessment  a  lower  levy,  a  condition  much 
to  be  desired  in  a  state  which  should  encourage  industrial 
development. 

Taxation  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  buying  and  selling 
transaction.  If  we  know  what  moneys  are  paid  into  the 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  249 

treasuries  of  the  state,  counties,  and  districts  by  the  indi- 
vidual we  must  then  find  out  what  benefits  are  received  by 
that  individual.  In  other  words,  what  do  these  units  hold 
out,  for  instance,  to  the  farmer  in  the  way  of  protection, 
education,  and  aid  in  bringing  up  his  child  as  an  intelligent, 
healthy  citizen?  Is  his  return  sufficient  to  make  him  willing 
to  support  these  functions  of  government? 


PART  THREE 

The  benefits  derived  through  taxation  are  as  follows: 
STATE 

General  Fund. 

I.  Board  of  Control,  a  public  corporation  of  three  mem- 
bers created  with  a  view  to  centralizing  power  and 
responsibility  for  the  managing  and  control  of  all 
state  penal,  charitable,  and  correctional  institutions, 
as  well  as  of  the  financial  and  business  affairs  of  all 
the  state  educational  institutions.  Under  this  board 
come: 

1.  The  Huntington  State  Hospital. 

Now  admits  epileptics,  idiots,  imbeciles,  and  such 
other  incurable  mental  defectives  as  the  Board 
of  Control  specifies ;  746  patients  are  taken  care 
of  at  an  annual  expense  of  $141.82  per  capita. 
The  patients  are  committed  by  the  County  Hy- 
giene Commission  or  in  such  manner  as  the 
Board  of  Control  may  prescribe.  Diversional 
employment  is  provided  for  the  inmates. 

2.  Spencer  State  Hospital. 

The  hospital  for  the  insane,  taking  care  of  an 
average  of  607  patients  at  an  annual  cost  of 
$185.95  Per  capita.  Work  in  an  upholstery  shop, 
sewing  room  and  on  the  farm  is  provided  for  the 
inmates. 

3.  Weston  State  Hospital. 

Hospital  for  the  insane;  an  average  of   1,076 
inmates  at  an  annual  cost  per  capita  of  $167.98. 
Has  an  extensive  industrial  department  as  well 
as  work  provided  on  the  farm. 
250 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  251 

4.  West  Virginia  Hospital  for  Colored  Insane. 

The  1919  Legislature  created  such  a  hospital. 
A  site  of  650  acres  has  been  selected  and  an 
architect  is  now  working  on  plans  for  the  build- 
ings. 

5.  The  Welch  Hospital  No.  i. 

6.  McKendree  Hospital  No.  2. 

7.  Fairmont  Hospital  No.  3. 

These  three  hospitals  were  established  by  the 
legislature  for  the  treatment,  free  of  charge,  of 
persons  accidentally  injured  while  engaged  in 
their  usual  employment  or  occupation,  preference 
being  given  to  residents  of  the  state.  If  a  miner 
be  injured  away  from  the  locality  of  the  hospitals 
his  transportation  to  one  of  them  is  usually  paid 
by  his  company.  Any  medical  case  not  con- 
tagious can  be  treated  at  these  hospitals  for  a 
nominal  fee.  The  special  rules  for  admission  of 
any  child  for  free  surgical  or  orthopedic  care  and 
treatment  are  as  follows : 

Such  treatment  must  be  subscribed  to  by  the 
child's  parent  or  guardian. 

Such  child  shall  not  be  afflicted  with  contagious 
disease. 

Incurable  cases  or  those  which  cannot  be  bene- 
fited will  not  be  admitted. 

Children  mentally  defective  are  admitted  only 
on  special  order  from  the  Board  of  Control. 

Fifty  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated  by 
the  legislature  to  spend  annually  for  free  treat- 
ment for  any  needing  hospital  care  in  any  hospi- 
tal in  the  state. 

8.  The  State  Tuberculosis  Sanitarium — Terra  Alta, 
Preston  County. 

This  is  not  a  home  for  incurables.  The  period 
of  stay  is  limited  to  six  months  unless  for  special 
reasons  the  superintendent  advises  that  the  pa- 
tient remain  longer.  The  superintendent  also 
has  the  right  to  reject  any  patient  who  is  not 
suitable.  As  nearly  as  possible,  patients  admitted 
are  limited  to  those  in  the  incipient  stages  of 


252  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

tuberculosis,  the  purpose  being  to  effect  as  many 
cures  as  possible  so  that  those  cured  may  be  the 
means  of  disseminating  information  of  educa- 
tional value.    On  July  i  there  were  124  patients 
and  the  annual  cost  was  $426.24  per  capita. 
9.  The  State  Colored  Tuberculosis  Sanitarium — Dun- 
mar,  Pocahontas  County. 

This  sanitarium  opened  with  40  beds ;  it  has  been 
running  for  less  than  a  year  and  it  is  hoped  to 
increase  the  number  of  beds  to  150. 

10.  The   Hillcrest    Tuberculosis   Sanatorium — Kana- 
wha  County. 

This  receives  state  support  for  only  those  pa- 
tients who  may  become  public  charges. 

11.  West  Virginia  School  for  Deaf  and  Blind — Rom- 
ney. 

The  school  averages  241  patients  at  an  annual 
expense  of  $276.07  per  capita.  The  colored  deaf 
and  blind  are  sent  to  the  Maryland  School  for 
the  Blind  at  Overlea,  Md.,  at  a  cost  of  $300  per 
capita,  each  year  paid  out  of  the  current  expense 
fund  of  this  institution. 

12.  West   Virginia  Colored   Orphans'  Home — Hunt- 
ington. 

Colored  orphan  children  under  16  years  of  age 
or  such  children  as  may  be  surrendered  by  the 
Board  of  Children's  Guardians  or  by  any  over- 
seer of  the  poor  are  admitted. 

13.  Florence  Crittenton  Home — Wheeling. 

This  home  is  for  unfortunate  girls  and  receives 
only  partial  aid  from  the  state.  It  is  principally 
to  care  for  cases  which  cannot  be  cared  for  else- 
where. 

14.  The  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians. 

The  board  consists  of  three  members  appointed 
by  the  governor.  It  employs  several  officers, 
deputies  and  agents  who  receive  into  custody  de- 
pendent, neglected,  and  homeless  children.  After 
careful  investigation  the  children  are  placed  in 
suitable  institutions  or  private  homes  for  care, 
maintenance  and  education. 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  253 

15.  The  West  Virginia  Industrial  School  for  Boys — 
Pruntytown. 

This  is  a  correctional  institution.  Here  boys 
may  be  admitted  by  a  justice  of  peace  or  by  the 
judge  of  any  intermediate  or  circuit  court.  Dur- 
ing the  past  year  there  have  been  284  white  and 
57  colored  children  taken  care  of,  the  largest 
number  falling  between  14  and  17  years  of  age. 
Mental  defectives  are  differentiated  from  the 
normal  group  only  by  the  observation  method. 
The  white  and  colored  children  are  separated  into 
eight  school  grades,  the  former  with  four  teach- 
ers, the  latter  with  one.  One  full  regular  school 
day  from  9  a.  m.  to  4  p.  m.  alternates  with  a 
work-day.  It  is  the  policy  of  the  school  that 
every  youth  shall  "have  his  splendid  latent  pow- 
ers for  labor  fostered  and  built  up"  while  on  the 
other  hand  it  is  obvious  from  the  report  of  this 
institution  that  the  "splendid  latent  powers"  for 
play  have  been  sadly  neglected.  However,  the 
1921  legislature  appropriated  some  funds  to  al- 
leviate this  situation  by  preparing  a  school  build- 
ing and  play  grounds ;  it  also  established  a  West 
Virginia  Industrial  School  for  Colored  Boys  but 
no  site  has  been  selected  as  yet. 

1 6.  The  West  Virginia  Industrial  Home  for  Girls — 
Industrial. 

Only  girls  between  the  ages  of  12  and  18  are 
received  in  this  institution.  They  are  com- 
mitted because  of  immorality,  incorrigibility  and 
other  forms  of  delinquency.  The  commitment 
may  be  made  by  a  justice  of  the  peace  or  by  any 
criminal,  intermediate  or  circuit  court.  Nine  or 
ten  months  of  regular  school  is  carried  on  in 
much  the  same  manner  as  the  public  school  and 
the  same  books  are  used  although  the  ever-chang- 
ing population  makes  the  work  somewhat  diffi- 
cult. A  great  deal  of  attention  is  given  to  recrea- 
tion, several  hours  of  the  day  being  given  to 
amusements.  There  are  swings  on  the  lawn  and 
the  girls  play  games  of  all  kinds.  Roller  skates 


254  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

are  provided  for  them  and  a  piano  and  Victrola 
are  furnished  for  each  cottage.  A  library  with  a 
good  supply  of  books  and  current  magazines  is 
available.  In  summer  the  town  of  Salem  has 
a  Chautauqua  and  during  the  winter  a  lyceum  lec- 
ture course  which  the  girls  are  permitted  to 
enjoy.  There  is  an  interesting  form  of  discipline 
here,  arising  from  a  system  of  grading  and 
monthly  reports  for  good  conduct.  The  girls 
with  the  best  reports  belong  to  what  is  called  the 
"Open  Door"  club ;  they  are  allowed  the  freedom 
of  the  home  and  are  permitted  at  times  to  go  to 
church  or  on  errands  to  the  village  unattended. 
Their  room  doors  are  not  locked  and  the  guards 
are  taken  from  their  windows.  As  a  rule  a  girl 
must  be  a  member  of  this  club  before  her  parole 
or  discharge  is  considered. 

17.  West  Virginia  University — Morgantown. 

The  University  stands  at  the  head  of  the  school 
system.  It  has  six  large  departments,  Arts  and 
Science,  Engineering,  Mining,  Agriculture,  Law, 
and  Medicine  and  Pharmacy.  Its  college  of 
Agriculture  deserves  special  mention  for  the 
work  being  done  in  the  extension  division.  The 
legislature  appropriated  $955,000  for  the  Uni- 
versity for  the  year  1922. 

18.  Normal  Schools. 

The  normal  schools  are  next  in  the  educational 
system.     They  are  as  follows: 

Concord  State  Normal  School. 

Fairmont  State  Normal  School. 

West  Liberty  State  Normal  School. 

Shepherd  College. 

Glenville  State  Normal  School. 

Marshall  College. 

The  legislature  appropriated  $857,500  for  the 

year  1922. 

19.  Storer  College — Harper's  Ferry. 

This  is  a  free  college  for  colored  boys  and  girls. 
It  is  supported  partially  by  private  contributions 
and  partially  by  the  state. 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  255 

20.  Bluefield  Colored  Institute— Bluefield. 

A  school  for  colored  boys  and  girls  which  offers 
high-school  and  normal  work. 

21.  West     Virginia     Collegiate    Institute — Kanawha 
County. 

A  colored  institution  for  vocational  training. 

22.  West  Virginia  Trade  School — Montgomery. 

This  school  receives  federal  aid  to  help  maintain 
its  department  of  vocational  training. 

23.  Department  of  Public  Safety  (or  State  Police). 

This  department  under  the  Board  of  Control  per- 
forms general  police  duty  without  restriction  as 
to  county  lines.  This  means  it  has  authority  to 
make  arrests,  including  children,  bringing  the 
offender  before  the  courts  of  the  county  in  which 
the  offense  was  committed. 

II.  State  Department  of  Health.  This  department  sees 
to  the  enforcement  of  health  and  sanitation  laws;  it 
maintains  a  bureau  of  venereal  disease  and  a  depart- 
ment of  state  public  health  nursing. 

III.  Six  factory  inspectors  to  enforce  as  one  of  their 
duties  the  child  labor   law  everywhere,   except   in 
mines.     Due  to  the  large  territory  which  each  in- 
spector must  cover  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  follow 
up  closely  the  work  permits  of  laboring  children  and 
the  conditions  under  which  they  are  employed. 

IV.  Nineteen  inspectors  under  the  department  of  mines. 

Among  their  many  other  duties  they  enforce  the 
child  labor  law  in  mines. 

V.  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund.  This  fund  is  paid 
into  the  state  treasury  by  employers  of  labor.  The 
amount  which  each  employer  must  pay  is  regulated 
by  the  payroll  and  the  casualties  of  the  past  year. 
Free  care  at  the  above  mentioned  state  hospitals  is 
given  in  addition  to  compensation. 

School  Fund.  Out  of  the  general  school  fund  are  de- 
ducted the  salary  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Free 
Schools,  his  necessary  travelling  expenses,  not  to  exceed  $500 
per  year,  the  expenses  of  his  office  and  the  salaries  of  the 


256  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

county  superintendents.  The  balance  is  distributed  among 
those  districts  which  show  a  deficit  in  the  local  school  fund. 
Such  aid  is  given  as  follows: 

I.  Aid  to  high-schools. 

1.  High-schools  giving  an  approved  course  of  nor- 
mal training  are  entitled  to  receive  $400  annually, 
provided,  however,  that  not  more  than  ten  high 
schools  shall  receive  aid  as  normal  training  schools 
at  one  time  and  that  such  aid  shall  not  be  given  to 
any  high-school  in  any  county  where  a  normal 
school  is  already  maintained. 

2.  High-schools  are  divided  into  three  classes : 

A.  First-class  high-schools  offer  courses  covering 
four  years  of  not  less  than  36  weeks  each,  and 
employ  not  fewer  than  three  thoroughly  quali- 
fied high  school  teachers  who  devote  all  their 
time  to  teaching   high-school   subjects;   such 
schools  receive  $800  annually. 

B.  Second-class  high-schools  offer  courses  cover- 
ing three  years  of  not  less  than  36  weeks  each, 
and   employ  not   fewer  than  two  thoroughly 
qualified  high-school  teachers  who  devote  all 
their   time  to   teaching   high-school   subjects; 
such  schools  receive  $600  annually. 

C.  Third-class  high-schools  offer  courses  of  two 
years  of  not  less  than  36  weeks,  and  employ 
at  least  one  thoroughly  qualified  high-school 
teacher ;  such  schools  receive  $400. 

II.  Aid  to  the  maintenance  building  fund  of  elementary 
schools.  This  is  to  help  standardize  one-room  and 
consolidated  rural  schools.  One-room  schools  meet- 
ing first-class  requirements  receive  $125  state  aid 
annually,  those  meeting  second-class  requirements 
receive  $100.  In  the  case  of  consolidated  schools 
the  amount  is  determined  by  the  number  of  pupils ; 
provided,  however,  that  not  more  than  $800  be  given 
to  any  first-class  consolidated  school,  or  more  than 
$600  to  any  second-class  consolidated  school. 
III.  State  aid  to  the  teachers'  fund  of  elementary  schools 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  257 

in  districts  where  the  maximum  levy  for  teachers 
will  not  provide  sufficient  funds  to  pay  minimum 
salaries  to  teachers  for  all  the  elementary  schools 
for  the  minimum  term. 

IV.  In  case  a  district  votes  a  special  levy  to  increase  teach- 
ers' salaries  above  the  minimum  and  to  pay  for  a 
district  supervisor,  state  aid  will  be  given  to  the  ex- 
tent of  half  the  amount  on  condition  the  district 
raises  the  other  half. 

Road  Fund.  Heretofore  the  state  has  given  the  counties 
some  money  to  help  with  the  maintenance  and  construction 
of  roads.  Under  the  new  road  law  passed  in  1921  all  public 
roads  have  been  divided  into  two  classes,  state  roads  and 
county-district  roads.  State  roads  are  those  which  make  up 
the  system  and  are  now  taken  over  by  the  newly  created 
Road  Commission.  This  means  the  state  will  bear  the  entire 
financial  burden  of  this  class  of  roads  whereas  formerly 
they  bore  only  part.  This  will  relieve  the  county  and  district 
from  any  support  of  main  roads  and  will  leave  more  funds 
for  the  building  of  roads  through  the  rural  districts.  The 
working  out  of  this  new  system  of  road  control  should  be 
watched  with  great  interest,  as  a  more  extensive  system  of 
roads  will  be  the  most  constructive  gift  West  Virginia  can 
give  to  her  children  with  a  view  to  furthering  their  welfare 
and  development. 

COUNTY 

General  Fund 

From  this  fund  are  paid  the  general  expenses  of  the 
county  which  include: 

I.  County  board  of  health,  and  salary  of  a  county 
health  officer,  who  has  charge  of  the  enforcement 
of  general  health  measures  and  any  emergency 
health  matters,  such  as  epidemics.  There  are  about 
eighty  public  health  nurses  in  the  state  but  very 
little  of  their  work  is  due  to  county  support.  Most 
of  them  are  enrolled  Red  Cross  nurses.  Many  are 
supported  partly  by  Red  Cross  funds  and  partly 


258  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

by  other  organizations.  Some  are  supported  partly 
by  county  funds.  Only  one  nurse  is  now  main- 
tained by  county  funds  alone. 

II.  County  poor  relief.  The  code  reads  "Each  County 
Court  shall  appoint  for  each  magisterial  district 
one  intelligent  voter  residing  therein  as  an  overseer 
of  the  poor  for  a  period  of  two  years  in  said  dis- 
trict." It  is  the  duty  of  these  overseers  to  admin- 
ister this  relief.  It  may  be  applied  for  by  or  on  be- 
half of  any  person  who  is  unable  to  maintain  him- 
self or  family,  or  if  the  overseer  finds  any  woman 
in  his  district  who  has  one  or  more  children  and  is 
in  need  of  assistance,  provided  always  that  such 
person  has  a  legal  settlement  of  one  year,  he  may 
administer  the  relief,  without  any  application  for 
it.  In  the  case  of  the  woman,  the  husband  must  be 
dead,  or  totally  incapacitated  mentally  or  physically, 
in  a  state  institution  or  have  abandoned  his  family. 
This  poor  relief  in  no  event  exceeds  $10  a  week 
for  one  child,  or  $5  for  each  additional  child ;  the 
allowance  for  any  child  must  not  continue  beyond 
the  age  of  14,  and  the  total  amount  allowed  to  any 
family  must  not  exceed  $25.  It  is  usually  given  in 
the  form  of  an  order  for  shoes,  milk,  medicine, 
coal,  or  groceries  and  also  includes  orders  for 
burials.  There  is  no  supervision  of  the  issuance 
of  such  orders  and  the  investigation  of  a  family's 
need  is  left  entirely  to  the  judgment  of  the  over- 
seer. Although  there  is  a  law  which  provides  for 
mothers'  pensions  their  payment  is  left  to  the 
county  and  up  to  date  this  opportunity  has  not  been 
utilized.  The  overseers  themselves  receive  a  very 
small  salary,  in  Ohio  County  the  highest  being  $70 
per  month,  and  the  majority  on  the  average  $25 
to  $50  per  month. 

III.  Agricultural  clubs.     The  county  pays  part  of  the 
salary  of  the  county  agent;  part  is  paid  by  the 
federal  government,  under  the  Smith-Lever  Act. 

IV.  The  county  provides  detention  homes. 

V.  Inquests  are  made  by  the  coroner  at  the  county's 
expense. 


TAXATION  AND  THE  CHILD  259 

VI.  Each  county  has  a  County  Hygiene  Commission 
made  up  of  the  president  of  the  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners or  the  president  of  the  County  Court,  the 
prosecuting  attorney  and  the  county  clerk.  The 
examination,  care  and  transportation  of  patients  to 
state  institutions  is  paid  for. 
VII.  Each  county  must  have  a  probation  officer  and  pay 

his  expenses  and  salary. 

VIII.  A  county  may  have  a  tuberculosis  sanitarium. 
IX.  An  inspector  of  weights  and  measures  is  provided 
for  in  part,  part  being  paid  by  the  state  and  part  by 
the  federal  government. 

X.  County  Hospital  and  Home.  An  institution  sup- 
ported out  of  the  general  county  fund  as  a  shelter 
for  the  indigent  poor. 

Road  Fund.  The  county  road  fund  takes  care  of  build- 
ing and  maintaining  all  the  roads  not  included  in  the  state 
system  of  roads  or  in  towns  or  in  corporations. 

DISTRICT.  The  district  is  the  unit  which  maintains  the 
free  schools,  with  state  aid  under  certain  conditions  (see 
School  Fund).  Under  the  new  school  law  any  district  is 
entitled  to  employ  school  nurses  and  to  establish  dental 
clinics. 

We  have  shown  briefly  just  what  public  benefits  West 
Virginia  holds  out  to  its  children, — benefits  made  possible 
through  the  payment  of  taxes  by  its  people. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  discussion  to  go  into  every  depart- 
ment of  government  and  inquire  into  its  functions  and 
necessary  expenditures  to  find  whether  or  not  the  proper 
amount  of  revenue  is  being  collected  for  its  maintenance ;  we 
can,  however,  ask  the  question,  "Are  the  funds  collected 
being  used  expediently?"  The  answer  is,  "No."  The  re- 
sponsibility for  enforcement  of  laws  and  ordinances  is  so 
scattered  and  so  little  supervision  is  exercised  over  the  ex- 
penditure of  funds  that  waste  and  confusion  are  bound  to 
result. 

For  instance,  the  farmer  pays  for  poor  relief,  but  how  is 


2<5o  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

he  to  know  whether  or  not  the  overseers  in  his  county  are 
administering  this  relief  wisely?  There  is  no  supervision  of 
the  "orders"  given  or  case  work  done.  In  the  enforcement 
of  the  child  labor  law  and  the  compulsory  school  attendance 
law — both  state  laws — we  find  the  former  is  enforced  en- 
tirely by  state  authorities  with  no  local  assistance,  while  the 
latter  is  left  entirely  to  local  authorities  with  no  supervision 
whatsoever  by  the  state. 

In  the  course  of  24  hours  a  child  may  come  to  the  atten- 
tion of  a  number  of  public  officers  whose  administrative 
powers  are  in  no  way  connected  but  whose  initial  duty  is 
essentially  the  same — that  is,  to  consider  the  welfare  of  the 
child.  Much  of  the  individual  and  personal  interest  in  the 
child  is  lost  as  he  passes  from  the  truancy  officer  to  the  pro- 
bation officer,  to  the  factory  inspector,  to  the  officer  issuing 
work  permits,  to  the  health  officer,  to  the  administrator  of 
mothers'  pensions  or  poor  relief. 

Unfortunately,  due  to  the  division  of  responsibility,  very 
few  of  these  officers  have  sufficient  duties  assigned  to  them 
to  justify  engaging  all  of  their  time  in  the  work  nor  does 
the  compensation  allotted  for  such  divided  services  provide  a 
reasonable  living;  therefore  they  are  compelled  to  spend  the 
greater  part  of  their  time  at  some  more  remunerative  occu- 
pation, thus  relegating  their  public  duties  to  a  secondary 
place. 

It  would  be  far  more  to  the  interest  of  children  to  unite 
closely  related  tasks  which  from  their  very  nature  fall  log- 
ically together  and,  under  the  supervision  of  the  state,  entrust 
them  to  a  county  unit  or  a  county  welfare  board  in  which 
competent  people,  paid  for  their  entire  time,  serve  the  public 
for  the  benefit  of  the  child,  not  only  economically  and  effi- 
ciently but  sufficiently. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE 
W.  H.  Swift 

IF  ONE  seeks  to  know  what  is  being  done  for  all  American 
children,  he  must  find  what  is  being  done  for  the  children  of 
every  one  of  the  states.  This  is  not  so  much  a  study  of 
West  Virginia,  as  of  the  laws  and  agencies  of  a  certain 
definite  territory  in  which  American  children  live. 

The  test  of  any  system  of  law  and  administration,  de- 
signed to  promote  the  welfare  of  children,  is  not  how  much 
is  done  for  a  part  of  them,  but  the  minimum  that  is  abso- 
lutely assured  to  every  child.  Are  some,  able  to  be  taught, 
growing  up  in  ignorance — then  the  public  educational  system 
is  imperfect;  are  some  exploited  to  their  own  injury  and  to 
the  loss  of  the  state — then  there  is  something  wrong  or  weak 
in  the  laws  regulating  their  employment  or  in  the  machinery 
created  to  enforce  these  laws.  The  state  must  measure  its 
laws  by  the  very  least  that  is  assured  to  its  poorest,  humblest 
child.  What  are  the  chances  of  children  slipping  out  of  the 
hands,  not  only  of  the  home  but  of  the  state,  to  sicken,  die, 
or  grow  up  into  non-desirable  citizens?  That  must  be  the 
test. 

The  child  law  of  West  Virginia  is,  in  the  main,  much  the 
same  as  that  of  other  progressive  states.  With  the  excep- 
tions to  which,  at  proper  places,  attention  will  be  called,  it  is 
in  conformity  with  the  better  accepted  standards  of  the 
country.  The  legislature  has  not  hurried  to  change  either 
law  or  legal  agencies;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  not 
hesitated  to  amend  old  laws  or  to  enact  new  ones  when  con- 
vinced of  the  need.  The  legislature  of  1919  amended  the 

261 


262  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

public  school  law  and  the  child  labor  law,  and  provided  for 
the  establishment  of  a  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians. 
The  legislature  of  1921  amended  the  school  law  again,  ex- 
tended the  powers  of  the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guar- 
dians, enacted  a  new  vital  statistics  law,  provided  for  the 
establishment  of  an  industrial  home  for  colored  girls,  an 
industrial  school  for  colored  boys,  and  a  training  school  for 
mental  defectives,  made  the  work-permit  law  applicable  to 
children  in  state  industrial  schools,  and  made  provisions  for 
a  child  welfare  commission. 

The  Supreme  Court,  in  interpreting  the  law  and  in  making 
it  apply  to  specific  cases,  has  not  been  forgetful  of  the  fact 
that  children  are  entitled  to  the  best  care.  In  conformity 
with  the  excellent  policy  of  similar  courts  in  other  states  and 
an  old  rule  laid  down  by  the  legislature  of  West  Virginia  for 
the  guidance  of  judges  of  circuit  courts  in  divorce  cases,  it 
has  held  time  and  time  again  that,  when  a  child  is  involved, 
paramount  consideration  must  be  given  to  its  welfare. 

Now,  accepting  that  as  the  high  rule  of  law,  let  us  see  how 
well  other  laws,  rules,  and  practices  conform  to  it. 


"Be  it  ever  so  humble 


What  will  this  coun- 
try boy  do  with  his 
heritage  ? 


Courtesy  of   Professor  John   F.   Smith 

Bad  roads  are  an  obstacle  to  economic  and 
social  development.  An  example  from 
Eastern  Kentucky 


PART  ONE 
LAW 

MARRIAGE 

We  begin  with  marriage,  a  legally  regulated  institution, 
because  the  state  in  making  and  enforcing  its  regulations 
holds  in  consideration  any  children  that  may  be  born  as  well 
as  the  two  parties  to  the  contract,  and  also  because,  under 
certain  conditions,  the  law  permits  persons  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  children,  to  marry.  Marriage  is  an  unusual 
sort  of  contract,  into  which  some  children  may  legally  enter, 
as  well  as  a  custom  arising  out  of  instinct.  Law  regulates 
the  contract  and,  in  some  measure,  refines  the  custom  so  as 
to  make  them  agreeable  to  the  state  of  public  thought  at  any 
given  time.  The  Supreme  Court  of  West  Virginia  has  de- 
clared that  while  marriage  is  a  civil  contract  in  that  consent 
of  the  parties  is  essential,  it  partakes  of  the  character  of  an 
institution  in  that  it  is  regulated  by  law  upon  principles  of 
public  policy  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.1 

It  is  a  crime : 

i.  For  any  person  with  a  living  husband  or  wife,  or  who 
has  been  absolutely  divorced  for  less  than  six  months,  to 
marry.  The  absence,  however,  of  the  husband  or  wife  for 
seven  years  with  no  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  other  that 
he  or  she  is  living  excuses  the  crime.2  A  marriage  with  a 
person  already  married  is  void,  but  it  is  prudent  to  have  the 
court  so  declare.3 

2,.  To  marry  within  the  degrees  of  kinship  as  forbidden 

1  29  W.  Va.  740. 

2B.  C.  C.   149,  s.   i,  2. 

*  34  W.   Va.    524. 

263 


264  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

by  law.1    An  incestuous  marriage  will  be  annulled  at  the 
instance  of  one  who  knowingly  entered  into  it.2 

3.  For  a  white  person  to  marry  a  negro,3  or  for  any  per- 
son to  solemnize  the  marriage  of  a  white  person  and  a 
negro.4 

All  these,  together  with  the  marriage  of  a  person  insane, 
or  of  a  child  under  the  age  of  consent,  are  held  to  be  void, 
but  the  general  rule  is  that  a  court  of  competent  jurisdiction 
must  so  declare.5 

If  all  other  formalities  are  complied  with,  a  boy  may 
marry  at  the  age  of  eighteen  and  a  girl  at  the  age  of  sixteen.6 
The  general  rule  is,  that  no  marriage  is  valid  unless  sol- 
emnized under  a  license  issued  according  to  law ;  but,  even  if 
there  was  no  authority  vested  in  the  one  solemnizing  the 
contract,  it  is  a  valid  marriage,  if  the  parties,  or  either  of 
them,  believed  that  it  was  lawful.7 

The  license  required  is  issued  by  the  clerk  of  the  county 
court,  but  not  necessarily  upon  the  personal  application  of 
both  or  even  one  of  the  parties.8  It  is  very  brief,  simply 
authorizing  the  marriage  to  be  solemnized  in  a  lawful  man- 
ner. No  license  for  the  marriage  of  a  child  under  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  will  be  issued  unless  the  father  or  guardian, 
or,  if  there  be  neither,  the  mother,  consents  in  person  before 
the  clerk,  or  in  writing  duly  witnessed.9  The  general  rule  is, 
that  only  ministers  of  the  Gospel  may  solemnize  marriages, 
and  they  only  when  authorized  by  the  county  or  circuit 
court.10  It  is  unlawful  for  any  one  to  perform  a  marriage 
without  a  license  or  without  being  authorized;11  and  for  a 
county  clerk  to  issue  a  marriage  license  contrary  to  law.12 

I  B.  C.  C.  149,  s.  3. 
»  54  W.  Va.  301. 
3B.  C.  C.  149,  s.  8. 

*  B.  C.  C.  149,  s.  9. 

8  B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  i,  9  and  10. 
«B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  2. 

7  B.  C.  C.  63,  s.  6. 

8  B.  C.  C.  63,  s.  14,  i. 

•  B.  C.  C.  63,  s.  2. 
10  B.  C.  C.  63,  s.  3. 

II  B.  C.  C.  149,  s-  S> 
"B.  C.  C.  149,  «.   8. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  265 

Common  law  marriages  are  not  recognized  as  valid  in 
West  Virginia.  No  marriage  contracted  in  the  state  is  valid 
unless  contracted  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  law,  even 
though  the  parties  may  have  lived  as  man  and  wife.1  On 
the  other  hand,  marriage  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that 
the  parties  lived  together,  called  each  other  husband  and 
wife,  from  other  circumstances,2  and  from  matrimonial  habit 
and  repute.3  Where  the  legitimacy  of  a  child  is  involved  the 
fact  of  marriage  may  be  established  by  evidence  of  cohabita- 
tion, and  the  presumption  of  legitimacy  is  so  strong  that  it 
can  be  overcome  only  by  cogent  proof  offered  by  him  who 
alleges  illegitimacy.4  That  is  good  law  for  children. 

As  one  reads  this  part  of  the  law  five  questions  arise : 

1.  If  a  child  is  old  enough  to  marry  and  the  legal  age 
limits  are  reasonable,  why  require  the  consent  of  anybody? 
If  a  person  has  sufficient  discretion  to  enter  into  the  con- 
tract, he  is  old  enough  to  dispense  with  all  consents  except 
that  of  the  other  contracting  party. 

2.  But  if  consent  is  to  be  required,   why  should  the 
mother  be  made  subordinate  not  only  to  the  father  but  to 
the  guardian  even?     If  any  consent  whatever  is  to  be  re- 
quired, the  mother  ought  to  join  with  the  father.     It  is  her 
child. 

3.  Under  the  method  of  granting  licenses  it  would  be 
easy  enough  for  a  feeble-minded  person  or  one  with  syphilis 
to  marry.     We  cannot  be  sure  that  this  will  not  happen.     In 
fact,  we  know  that  it  does  often  happen.     There  ought  to 
be  some  sort  of  certificate  of  qualification   for  marriage. 
Ordinarily,  both  parties   should  appear  in  person.      Each 
should  be  required  to  present  a  physician's  certificate  that  he 
or  she  is  free  from  venereal  disease  and  the  clerk  should  be 
required  to  find  as  a  fact  that  each  is  of  sound  mind. 

4.  Marriage  is  a  civil  contract,  then  why  have  it  sol- 

»29  W.  Va.  732. 
«  2  W.  Va.   435- 
•76  W.  Va.  352. 
•68  W.   Va.   600. 


266  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

emnized  only  by  ministers?     Sometimes  the  preacher  may 
be  gone  and  it  might  be  a  long  way  to  the  next  one. 

5.  Reasonable  notice  that  the  parties  are  about  to  apply 
for  license  to  marry  ought  to  be  given.  There  are  really 
three  parties  to  the  contract  and  society  is  entitled  to  notice 
that  it  is  about  to  be  drawn  in  by  the  other  two. 

PRE-NATAL   CARE  AND  CARE  AT  BIRTH 

The  average  legislator  has  not  been  much  concerned  about 
this  unless  the  mother  happened  to  be  his  wife  or  a  near 
relative,  and  almost  no  attention  is  given  to  it  in  the  law ;  but 
it  is  a  social  matter  which  should  not  be  ignored.  Simple 
instructions  to  pregnant  women  are  often  the  means  of  pre- 
serving the  health  and  even  the  lives  of  both  mothers  and 
children. 

Those  who  live  in  many  rural  sections  are  forced  to 
depend  upon  midwives  and  good  luck.  Physicians  are  re- 
quired to  stand  an  examination  and  to  hold  lawful  certifi- 
cates before  engaging  in  the  practice  of  medicine;  but  the 
law  specifically  exempts  females  who  practice  midwifery.1 
Midwives  are  required  to  register  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of 
the  county  court  and  to  report  all  births  and  deaths  ;2  but  no 
legal  provision  is  made  for  even  the  most  simple  instruction 
or  for  any  sort  of  examination.  He  who  relies  upon  a 
midwife  for  the  care  of  his  wife  and  child  in  West  Virginia 
does  so  without  the  least  sort  of  legal  assurance  that  she 
knows  her  business.  Physicians  naturally  go  to  the  towns, 
cities  and  better  communities.  If  there  is  no  physician,  one 
is  forced  to  depend  upon  a  midwife,  and  that  makes  it  all 
the  more  necessary  for  the  law  and  legal  agencies  to  have 
some  say. 

The  care  of  women  and  children  at  child-birth  should  be  a 
part  of  the  work  of  the  state  and  county  health  agencies,  and 
the  law  should  forbid  the  employment  of  a  woman  for  a 
reasonable  period  before  and  after  the  birth  of  a  child. 

»B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  24. 
aB.  C.  C.  63,  s.  1 8. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  267 

Maternity  homes  and  lying-in  hospitals  are  institutions 
which  should  be  carefully  watched.  There  are  unscrupu- 
lous persons  who  do  not  hesitate  to  run  ill-equipped  places ; 
and,  unless  carefully  and  continuously  supervised,  some  ma- 
ternity homes  may  soon  become  abortion  shops  and  "fences" 
for  the  quick  disposal  of  babies.  The  State  Board  of  Chil- 
dren's Guardians  is  authorized  and  required  to  visit,  inspect, 
supervise  and  approve  these  as  well  as  all  other  child-caring 
agencies,  not  belonging  to  the  state.1  This  means  that 
the  state  has  recognized  its  responsibility  and  has  set  its 
agent  to  guard  the  child. 

It  is  unlawful  for  any  one  to  administer  any  drug  to  any 
pregnant  woman  or  to  cause  her  to  take  any  drug  or  use 
other  means  to  destroy  her  unborn  child,  or  to  produce 
an  abortion,  or  cause  a  miscarriage.2  That  is  not  sufficient. 
The  best  sort  of  law  is  positive  rather  than  punitive.  Women 
and  children  suffer,  or  are  injured  because  of  ignorance  and 
neglect  a  thousand,  ten  thousand,  times  more  frequently  than 
from  actual  criminality. 

West  Virginia  is  not  the  only  state  that  fails  properly  to 
guard  mothers  and  children  at  child-birth.  The  need  for 
this  sort  of  care  has  come  to  be  clearly  recognized  only  in 
the  last  few  years.  Those  who  think  and  set  things  going 
have  been  so  much  interested  in  other  matters  that  they  have 
not  yet  got  fully  around  to  this.  The  good  work  done  by 
the  Children's  Bureau,  and  other  agencies,  has  not  yet  borne 
full  fruit.  But  this  indifference  should  not  be  allowed  to 
continue.  The  state  must  take  the  growing  of  strong  men 
and  women  as  a  serious  matter;  and  when  it  does,  mothers 
and  children  will  all  receive  proper  attention  and  care. 

PARENT  AND  CHILD 

We  now  come  to  that  relation  in  which  most  children 
live.  In  law,  the  father  is  the  natural  guardian  of  the  child 

1  Chapt.   134,  1921. 
•  B.  C.  C.  144,  s.  9. 


268  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

and  has  the  right  of  custody;  but  this  is  not  held  to  be  an 
absolute  right;1  and  the  courts  will  ignore  it  whenever  it  is 
shown  that  the  child  is  not  properly  cared  for.2  In  case  of 
the  death  of  the  father,  the  mother  succeeds  to  the  right  of 
custody;  but  the  father  may  defeat  this  by  binding  out  the 
child  as  an  apprentice.3  The  father  may  also  appoint  a 
guardian  for  his  minor  child  by  will;  but  no  guardian  ap- 
pointed by  will  of  the  father  may  take  the  child  from  the 
care  and  custody  of  the  mother,  unless  it  be  shown  that  she 
is  unfit  to  have  the  care  of  her  child.4  Even  when  the  child 
has  an  estate  and  a  guardian,  the  father  and  after  him  the 
mother  has  the  rights  of  custody  and  care  of  the  education 
of  the  child.5 

A  parent  may  relinquish  his  right  to  have  the  custody  of 
his  child,  and  when  relinquished  it  will  not  be  restored  to  him 
unless  it  is  shown  to  be  for  the  best  interests  of  the  child.6 
A  parent  may  by  agreement  emancipate  his  child,  and  the 
law  is  that  he  may  not  revoke  such  agreement.7  The  rule  of 
all  rules  is  that  the  court  has  the  right  to  take  and  place  the 
child  with  that  person  who  will  best  serve  its  interests. 
Still,  the  law  does  not  fail  to  guard  the  right  of  the  parent  to 
have  the  undisturbed  custody  of  his  child.  It  is  a  crime  to 
take  or  secrete  any  child  under  14  years  of  age  from  the 
parent  or  other  lawful  custodian  and  for  any  person  other 
than  its  father  or  mother  to  take  any  minor  over  14  years  of 
age  for  any  unlawful  or  improper  purpose.8 

The  right  to  the  services  and  earnings  of  a  child  springs 
from  the  right  to  custody  and  the  duty  to  support  it.  A 
father  or  the  mother,  in  case  she  succeeds  to  the  rights  of 
custody,  is  entitled  to  the  services  and  earnings  of  his  or  her 
minor  child  and  may  maintain  an  action  for  any  interruption 

»4i  W.  Va.  704;  29  W.  Va.  751- 

2  B.  C.  C.  46  A,  s.  7. 

•29  W.  Va.  751. 

*2  W.  Va.  464;  B.  C.  C.  82,  s.  7. 

*B.  C.  C.  82,  s.  7. 

6  50  W.  Va.  244. 

7  62  W.  Va.  55. 

8  B.    C.    C.    144-  S.   14. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  269 

of  that  service.1  The  earnings  of  a  child  who  works  for 
another  without  the  consent  of  the  father  belongs  to  the 
father.2  Of  course,  this  rule  does  not  hold  in  case  the  parent 
has  emancipated  his  child  or  relinquished  his  right  to  cus- 
tody, services  or  earnings.3  A  parent  cannot  recover  dam- 
ages for  the  wrongful  death  of  his  minor ;  that  action  must 
be  brought  by  the  personal  representative  of  the  deceased 
child.4 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  might  be  inferred  that  a  man 
has  full  right  to  put  his  children  to  work  and  take  all  they 
make  and  live  off  it  in  idleness ;  but  that  inference  would  not 
be  justified,  unless  it  appears  that  other  laws  enacted  for  the 
benefit  of  children  are  either  inadequate  or  not  enforced. 
The  compulsory  school  attendance  law,  the  child  labor  law 
and  juvenile  court  law  all  should  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
vicious  or  neglectful  parent  and  ought  to  prevent  him  from 
exploiting  his  own  child.  The  question  is,  do  they,  and  that 
question  is  answered  in  the  other  chapters. 

A  parent,  ordinarily,  has,  in  addition  to  the  right  of  cus- 
tody and  to  the  services  and  earnings  of  his  minor  child,  the 
power  to  consent  and  thereby  authorize  the  marriage,  adop- 
tion or  apprenticing  of  his  child  and  also  to  emancipate  or 
appoint  a  guardian  for  it. 

Marriage.  Marriage  must  be  contracted  under  a  license 
and  that  will  not  be  granted  for  a  minor  unless  the  consent 
of  the  father,  guardian,  or  if  there  be  neither,  of  the  mother 
is  given  in  person  or  in  writing.5  It  is  of  interest :  first,  that 
the  father  has  the  power  to  authorize  the  marriage  of  the 
child  no  matter  how  much  the  mother  may  object;  and 
second,  that  if  the  father  is  dead,  a  guardian  has  the  right  to 
consent  and  authorize  the  marriage  without  the  consent  of 
the  mother.  That  certainly  places  the  mother  in  a  subordi- 

*4i   W.  Va.  704. 

3  29   W.  Va.   424. 

»37  W.  Va.  242;  38  W.  Va.  424. 

*  57  W.  Va.  433. 

°B.   C.  C.   63,  s.  2. 


270  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

nate  position,  and  no  mother  should  be  so  placed  in  respect  to 
her  own  child. 

Adoption.  In  cases  of  adoption  both  parents  must  con- 
sent, and  another  excellent  feature  of  this  part  of  the  law  is 
that,  if  a  married  man  seeks  to  adopt  a  child,  the  consent  of 
his  wife  or  vice  versa  must  be  given  before  the  court  will 
grant  the  decree.  If  there  is  only  one  parent,  the  consent  of 
that  one  is  sufficient;  if  no  parent,  then  the  guardian  con- 
sents.1 Adoption  is  decreed  by  judge  of  the  Circuit  Court 
after  all  the  facts  are  shown  and  especially  that  the 
adopter  is  at  least  fifteen  years  older  than  the  child,  is  of 
good  character  and  standing,  is  able  to  maintain  and  educate 
it,  and  that  the  adoption  will  be  for  the  best  interests  of  the 
child.2 

After  adoption,  the  child  becomes  as  if  the  child  by 
birth  of  his  adoptor  and  his  lawful  heir.  But  the  law  does 
not  set  aside  the  rights  of  a  parent  who  had  no  notice.  Such 
parent  may  within  one  year  after  notice  bring  an  action  to 
have  the  decree  set  aside,  and  the  court  would  be  guided  by 
the  rule  often  declared  by  the  Supreme  Court ;  namely,  that 
the  best  interests  of  the  child  must  control.3  The  judge 
of  the  Circuit  Court  is  the  judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  and 
so  adoption  is  really  decreed  by  the  judge  of  the  Juvenile 
Court;  but  it  would  be  better  to  make  it  a  Juvenile  Court 
matter  strictly  so  that  there  may  be  thorough  examination  of 
every  case  by  an  official  investigator. 

Apprenticeship.  There  are  really  two  ways  of  appren- 
ticing a  child :  a  father,  or,  if  there  is  no  father,  a  guardian, 
or,  if  there  is  neither,  the  mother  may,  with  the  consent  of 
the  county  court,  apprentice  a  child;  and  the  county  court 
has  authority,  upon  its  own  motion,  to  bind  out  any  child 
who  is  found  begging  or  likely  to  become  a  county  charge. 
No  child  14  years  of  age  or  over  may,  however,  be  bound 

*B.    C.    C.     122,    S.     I,    2. 

ZB.  C.  C.   122,  s.  3. 
•  B.  C.  C.  122,  s.  5. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  271 

out  without  his  consent.  Children  are  apprenticed  by  in- 
dentures.1 

The  articles  of  indenture  must  specify  the  trade  to  be 
taught  and  the  master  is  required,  in  addition,  to  teach  the 
child  or  have  it  taught  reading,  writing  and  common  arith- 
metic. If  a  parent  or  guardian  apprentices  a  child,  he,  of 
course,  fixes  the  terms  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  county 
court ;  if  the  binding  is  done  by  the  county  court,  at  its  own 
instance,  it,  of  course,  fixes  the  terms.  In  either  case  the 
master  is  required  to  file  a  bond  to  guarantee  that  he  will 
comply  with  conditions.  Failure  to  file  this  bond  for  six 
months  renders  the  indentures  void.2 

The  term  of  apprenticeship  is,  for  boys,  until  21  years  of 
age,  for  girls,  until  18.  An  apprentice  may  be  transferred 
or  assigned  by  the  master  but  he  may  not  be  carried  out  of 
the  county  without  the  consent  of  the  county  court.  If  the 
child  is  carried  into  another  county  a  copy  of  the  indentures 
must  be  filed  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the  county  court  or 
else  the  apprentice  is  not  required  to  serve.3 

The  Juvenile  Court  is  presumed  to  handle  all  dependent 
children,  and,  if  a  child  is  ever  to  be  bound  out  it  should  be 
under  this  court.  But  there  should  be  no  binding-out.  It 
makes  for  slavery.  Children  of  spirit  are  not  going  to  serve 
a  master  until  21  or  even  18.  Boys  are  permitted  to  marry 
at  1 8,  and  girls  at  16.  All  acts  or  parts  of  acts  authorizing 
any  child  to  be  apprenticed  should  be  repealed. 

Emancipation.  A  father  or  mother  who  has  the  right  of 
custody  has  the  power  to  emancipate  a  child,  and  the  fact  of 
emancipation  may  be  inferred  from  the  circumstances.4 

Guardian  by  W 'ill.  The  father  of  a  minor  or  the  mother, 
if  she  is  a  widow  or  unmarried  mother,  has  the  power  to 
appoint  a  guardian  by  will.  The  general  rule  is  that  a 

1B.  C.  C.  81,  s.  i,  2,  4. 

8  B.  C.  C.  81,  s.  4,  3,  7,  12. 

8B.  C.  C.  81,  s.   12. 

*29  W.  Va.  424;  37  W.  Va.  242;  38  W.  Va.   283. 


272  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

guardian  takes  the  custody  of  the  child,  but  this  does  not  run 
against  a  father  or  mother.1 

We  have  been  speaking  of  a  parent's  rights  with  regard  to 
the  child.  Now  we  turn  our  attention  to  a  matter  of  more 
importance,  the  child's  rights.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  father  to 
support  and  care  for  his  minor  child,  and  that  regardless  of 
whether  the  child  has  or  does  not  have  an  estate  in  its  own 
right;  if,  however,  it  is  shown  that  the  child  has  an  estate 
and  that  the  father  is  unable  to  support  him,  the  court  will 
order  support  for  the  child  out  of  the  estate  belonging  to  it.2 
In  case  of  the  death  of  the  father,  this  duty  falls  upon  the 
mother. 

The  criminal  law  may  be  invoked  to  enforce  this  right  for 
the  child.  It  is  a  crime  for  any  parent  without  lawful  ex- 
cuse to  desert  or  willfully  neglect  to  provide  for  the  support 
of  his  child  (legitimate  or  illegitimate)  under  16  years  of 
age.3  Just  what  constitutes  a  lawful  excuse  does  not  appear 
in  any  of  the  decisions ;  but  certainly  one  parent  should  not 
hold  the  conduct  of  the  other  to  be  any  excuse  for  failure  to 
care  for  his  child.  It  is  a  crime  for  any  parent  or  other 
person  having  the  custody  of  a  child  cruelly  to  ill-treat  or 
abuse  it  or  to  inflict  upon  it  cruel  punishment  ;4  and  for  any 
parent  to  let  or  dispose  of  his  child  under  eighteen  years  of 
age  to  sing,  play  or  beg  in  a  public  street  or  road,  or  to 
permit  his  child  under  fifteen  years  of  age  to  sing,  dance,  act 
or  exhibit  in  any  dance  house,  concert,  saloon,  theatre  or 
place  of  entertainment  where  liquor  is  sold.5  The  law  holds 
the  father  first  and  then  the  mother  responsible  for  the  sup- 
port and  care  of  the  child.  Either  may  be  punished  for 
failure  or  neglect. 

Any  parent  has  the  power  to  deprive  his  or  her  child  of 
whatever  age  or  state  of  infancy  of  support  from  his  or  her 
property  by  will.6  But  it  must  be  clear  that  the  parent 

>B.  C.  C.  82,  s.  i. 

2  41  W.  Va.  704;  43  W.  Va.  711. 

*  B.  C.  C.  144,  s.  16  c. 

•  B.  C.  C.  144,  s.  16  d. 
«B.  C.  C.   144,  s.   16  d. 
«B.  C.  C.  7773    i. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  273 

meant  to  cut  the  child  off  without  support.  A  child  born 
after  a  will  in  which  no  provision  is  made  for  it  and  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  it  takes  as  if  there  was  no  will.1  The  law, 
while  permitting  a  parent  to  cut  the  child  off  helpless,  throws 
the  burden  upon  him  by  requiring  him  to  show  that  he  de- 
liberately planned  to  do  it.  This  is  one  of  the  time-honored 
rights  of  personal  ownership  of  property.  It  rests  upon  the 
assumption  that  one  has  the  right  to  do  as  he  pleases  with 
his  own;  but,  not  every  one  has  the  right  to  dispose  of  his 
property  as  he  pleases.  No  one  can  dispose  of  his  property 
so  as  to  deprive  his  creditors  of  their  rights.  One  must  be 
just  to  his  creditors  before  he  will  be  permitted  to  be  gen- 
erous to  anybody.  Why  not  to  his  child?  Neither  father 
nor  mother  may  take  property  from  the  other,  by  will  or  by 
right  of  curtesy  or  dower,  for  each  is  held  by  law  to  support 
and  educate  the  child. 

A  little,  a  very  little,  intelligent  extension  of  the  law  of 
debt  would  suffice  to  insure  care  for  the  child.  The  law 
holds  that  it  is  the  duty  of  a  parent  to  support  his  child ;  then 
support  is  a  sort  of  debt  which  the  parent  owes  to  the  child 
and  which  is  enforceable  against  the  parent,  so  long  as  they 
both  are  alive.  The  next  step  would  be  to  declare  that  this 
debt  of  support  survives  after  the  death  of  the  parent  and  is 
a  charge  against  the  estate  just  as  any  other  debt,  but  sec- 
ondary to  the  lawful  claims  of  other  creditors.  If  that  were 
done,  the  parent  would  be  required  to  provide  support  for 
his  child,  say  up  to  the  age  of  16,  before  he  could  dispose  of 
any  part  of  his  property  by  will  to  any  other  person,  and  if 
this  were  not  done,  any  one  taking  any  amount  under  the 
will  would  take  it  charged  with  the  support  of  the  child  or 
children  in  a  like  amount. 

The  state  must  hold  itself  bound  to  support  every  child 
left  without  means  of  support.  Property  is  willed  under  the 
authority  and  by  the  sanction  of  the  state.  There  is,  there 
can  be,  no  good  reason  why  the  state  should  carry  a  parent's 
estate  over  to  another,  as  directed  by  his  will,  and  then  be 

»B.  C.  C.  77,  *.  17. 


274  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

forced  to  give  support  to  the  child.     It  is  unfair  to  the  state 
as  well  as  the  child. 

This  idea  is  not  altogether  new.  Even  now  the  right  of 
the  child  to  be  supported  by  the  parent  runs  in  some  measure 
after  the  death  of  the  parent.  The  workmen's  compensation 
act  is  based,  in  part,  upon  the  principle  that  a  child  has  the 
right  to  look  to  his  parent  for  support  even  after  that  parent 
has  ceased  to  live.  Under  this  act  payments  are,  of  course, 
made  to  the  person  injured  in  cases  of  disability  only  ;x  but  in 
case  of  death,  the  payments  are  made  for  the  benefit  of  the 
employee's  dependents.  Widows,  invalid  widowers,  and 
children  under  15  years  of  age  are  declared  to  be  dependents, 
and  posthumous,  adopted,  and  step  children  under  15  years 
are  similarly  classed.2  An  illegitimate  child  would  not  be 
classed  as  a  dependent  of  his  father. 

Outside  the  scope  of  the  workmen's  compensation  act  the 
law  gives  to  the  administrator  of  a  deceased  person  the  right 
to  recover  damages  for  his  death  caused  by  the  negligence  or 
wrongful  act  of  another.3  The  amount  so  recovered  is  dis- 
tributed as  a  part  of  the  surplus  of  the  personal  estate  of  the 
deceased. 

The  surplus  of  the  personal  estate  of  a  deceased  father 
goes,  one-third  to  the  widow,  and  two-thirds  to  the  children. 
If  there  is  no  widow,  the  children  take  all;  if  no  child,  the 
widow  takes  all.  Upon  the  death  of  a  mother  the  same  rule 
is  followed.4  In  determining  the  right  to  inherit  property 
the  law  holds  a  child  born  of  a  void  marriage  to  be  legiti- 
mate,5 as  also  a  child  born  within  ten  months  after  the 
death  of  the  husband  of  its  mother.6  The  child  or  children 
of  a  deceased  father  or  mother  take  all  the  real  property 
subject,  of  course,  to  the  rights  of  dower  or  curtesy,  as  the 
case  may  be.7 

B.  c.  c.  15  P,  s.  33. 


•!:  8: 8:  »*'*%?*  w.  va.  3*-,  57  w.  va.  433. 

«B.  C.  C.  78,  s.  9. 


:i:£ccW,Vs.7 

T  B.  C.  C.  78,  s.  i. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  275 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  had  almost  exclusively  in  mind 
the  ordinary  child  to  whom  nothing  unusual  has  come. 
Now,  let  us  turn  our  attention  to  those  children  whose  home 
life  is,  in  some  way  or  other,  either  broken  up  or  badly  dis- 
ordered. 

Death  of  Parent.  Upon  the  death  of  the  mother  there  is 
no  change  in  legal  relations.  The  father,  as  the  natural 
guardian,  continues  to  have  legal  custody  of  the  child  and 
remains  under  the  same  legal  obligations  to  maintain  and 
care  for  it.  If,  however,  any  property  is  left  to  the  child  by 
the  mother  a  guardian  must  be  appointed.  A  father  has  no 
legal  right  to  handle  the  estate  of  his  child  unless  he  is 
appointed  guardian. 

The  death  of  the  father  causes  very  material  changes  in 
legal  relations.  The  right  and  duty  to  keep  and  care  for  the 
child  falls  to  the  mother  at  the  death  of  the  father,  just  as  it 
goes  to  her,  without  relieving  him  or  his  estate  of  any  lia- 
bility, in  case  he  abandons  his  family.  If  the  father  leaves 
property  for  the  child  a  guardian  must  be  appointed  to  care 
for  the  estate,  but  not  to  have  the  custody  or  care  of  the 
child,  unless  it  is  shown  that  the  mother  is  unfit  to  care  for  it. 

Guardianship.  The  law  contemplates  that  every  child 
under  age  shall  have  the  care  of  a  guardian  of  the  person. 
This  right  belongs  first  to  the  father  j1  and  then  in  case  of  his 
death  to  the  mother.2  A  second  marriage  of  the  mother 
does  not  divest  her  of  this  right.3  But  it  must  be  under- 
stood that  neither  father  nor  mother  as  natural  guardian  has 
any  right  to  the  estate  of  the  child.4  Only  a  legally  ap- 
pointed guardian  is  entitled  to  handle  the  estate  of  a  minor. 
A  married  woman  may  not  be  appointed  guardian  of  the 
estate,  and  the  marriage  of  a  woman,  while  it  does  not  divest 

129  W.  Va.  751;  35  W.  Va.  698. 
•40  W.  Va.  564. 
1  29  W.  Va.  564. 
*  40  W.  Va.  564. 


276  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

her  of  her  right  to  have  the  custody  of  her  child,  does  ter- 
minate her  guardianship  of  its  estate.1 

A  guardian  may  be  appointed  by  the  will  of  the  father,2 
by  the  will  of  the  mother,  if  a  widow  or  an  unmarried 
mother,3  or  if  the  child  has  an  estate  and  no  guardian  has 
been  appointed  in  either  of  these  ways,  the  county  or  Circuit 
Court  will  appoint  a  guardian.4  If  the  child  is  14  years  of 
age  or  over  he  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  county  court, 
nominate  his  guardian.5 

All  guardians,  except  those  specifically  exempt  by  last 
wills,  are  required  to  give  bond.6  A  guardian  who  has 
filed  the  bond  required  by  the  county  court  is  authorized  to 
take  the  custody  of  the  child,  to  have  the  care  and  manage- 
ment of  its  estate  and  is  required  to  provide  for  its  main- 
tenance and  education ;  but  this  general  rule  is  limited  by  the 
right  of  the  father  or  mother  to  have  the  custody  and  care  of 
the  education  of  the  child  and  also  by  the  fact  that  the  duty 
to  support  and  educate  the  child  rests  first  upon  the  father, 
and  then  upon  the  estate  held  by  the  guardian.7 

The  general  rule  is,  that  a  guardian  may  not  use  more  than 
the  annual  income  from  the  estate  in  maintaining  or  edu- 
cating the  child.  There  are,  however,  exceptions  to  this 
rule :  when  the  child  is  too  young  or  not  strong  enough  to  be 
bound  out  and  when  the  Circuit  Court  deems  it  best  to  ex- 
pend a  part  or  all  of  the  estate  for  the  maintenance  and  edu- 
cation of  the  child  and  so  orders.8 

A  guardian  has  no  authority  to  sell  his  ward's  land  unless 
so  ordered  by  the  court.  He  is  authorized  to  lease  his  ward's 
lands  either  publicly  or  privately  ;9  but  this  does  not  apply  to 
leases  for  oil  or  gas  development  unless  upon  order  of  the 

1  B.  C.  C.  82.   s.    7. 

2  B.  C.  C.  82,  s.  i. 
8B.  C.  C.  82,  a.  i. 
*B.  C.  C.  82,  s.  3. 
»B.  C.  C.  82,  s.  4. 

•>  B.'  C.'  C.'  82,'  &,'  7;  W.  Va.  826;  40  W.  Va.  564;  2  W.  Va.  464. 
8  B.  C.  C.  82,  s.  8. 
»43  W.  Va.  7". 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  277 

court.1  Being  empowered  to  sell  the  personal  estate  of  his 
ward,  he  will,  of  course,  be  held  liable  for  gross  negligence, 
and  to  account  not  only  for  such  property  as  comes  into  his 
hands,  but  also  for  such  as  would  have  come  into  his  hands 
if  he  had  used  reasonable  diligence  and  ordinary  prudence. 
He  is  required  to  collect  all  debts  and  will  be  held  liable  for 
failure.2  The  statute  of  limitations  does  not  run  against  a 
ward  in  favor  of  his  guardian.3 

A  guardian  who  has  the  custody  of  a  child  is  held  to  give 
that  care  which  the  law  requires  of  a  parent.  The  Circuit 
Court  is  authorized  to  remove  any  guardian  for  neglect  or 
breach  of  trust  or  for  failure  to  care  for  the  child.  Circuit 
as  well  as  county  courts  have  full  authority  to  appoint 
guardians;  but  the  practice  is  for  the  Circuit  Court  to  ap- 
point guardians  for  special  purposes  only.  Ordinarily,  guar- 
dianship matters  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  county 
court. 

In  reading  the  law  as  to  guardians  three  points  arise  for 
consideration.  First,  when  a  mother,  married  or  not  mar- 
ried, wills  property  to  a  minor  child  she  should  have  the 
right  to  name  the  guardian  for  the  care  of  the  estate.  A 
mother  should  not  be  barred  from  this  right  simply  because 
she  is  married.  Second,  the  fact  that  a  woman  is  married 
should  be  no  bar  against  her  right  to  act  as  guardian.  This 
part  of  the  law  should  be  changed  so  as  to  give  her  full 
right  with  her  husband  or  any  other  person.  Third,  all 
guardianship  matters  should  be  under  the  exclusive  juris- 
diction of  the  Circuit  Court  sitting  as  a  Juvenile  Court. 
There  is  no  good  reason  why  two  courts  should  have  the 
right  to  appoint  guardians,  or  why  the  county  court,  which 
should  be  a  fiscal  court  only,  should  ever  have  this  right. 
All  matters  relating  to  children  should  be  made  juvenile 
court  matters. 

»S3  W.  Va.  203;  43  W.  Va.  826. 

8  65  W.  Va.  75! 

•65  W.  Va.  75*;   69  W.   Va.    459- 


278  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

Divorce. — There  are  really  four  kinds  of  divorce  actions: 

1.  Marriages  which  are  forbidden  by  law  will  be  declared 
by  the  court  to  be  void.1    The  Supreme  Court  has  held  that 
in  some  cases  a  decree  is  not  absolutely  necessary  for  treating 
the  contract  as  a  nullity,  but  suggests  it  as  a  matter  of 
prudence.2 

2.  When  there  is  doubt  as  to  the  validity  of  a  marriage 
an  action  may  be  brought  to  determine  the  facts  and  the 
Circuit  Court  will  thereupon  decree  the  marriage  valid  or 
void  as  the  facts  appear.3 

3.  The  law  declares  a  rather  liberal  number  of  causes  for 
absolute  divorce.* 

4.  Divorce  from  bed  and  board  may  be  granted  for  any 
one  of  the  causes  for  absolute  divorce,  or  for  cruel  or  in- 
human treatment,  reasonable  apprehension  of  bodily  hurt, 
abandonment,    desertion,    or    habitual    drunkenness    after 
marriage.5 

All  actions  for  divorce  are  brought  in  the  Circuit  Court 
on  the  chancery  side.6  The  circuit  judge  may  appoint  in 
each  county  within  his  jurisdiction  a  divorce  commissioner,7 
or  he  may  refer  the  matter  to  a  commissioner  in  chancery 
or  a  special  commissioner  to  take  testimony  and  to  find  the 
facts  with  regard  to  estates,  parties,  children,  income,  and 
character.8  There  can  be  no  divorce  by  agreement  of  the 
parties.9  Neither  will  a  divorce  be  granted  upon  the  admis- 
sion of  either  party.  The  whole  matter  must  be  heard  and 
there  must  be  positive  proof  of  the  facts  alleged  as  cause 
for  divorce.10 

Where  a  marriage  is  declared  to  be  void  no  alimony  will 


1  34  W.  Va.  524- 
»S4  W.  Va.  301. 
»  B  C.  C.  64,  s. 
•  B.  C.  C.  64,  s. 


C.  C.  64,  s.  4. 
.  C.  C.  64,  s.  5. 
B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  6. 


•  B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  7. 

7  B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  16. 

8  B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  15. 

•  4i  W.  Va.  125. 

10  B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  8. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  279 

be  granted  to  the  wife  j1  but  in  actions  for  absolute  divorce, 
or  for  divorce  from  bed  and  board,  the  circuit  judge  is 
authorized  to  order  the  husband  to  make  payments  to  the 
wife  for  maintenance,  to  enable  her  to  carry  on  her  suit,  to 
provide  for  the  maintenance  of  the  children,  to  preserve  his 
estate,  to  require  him  to  give  security,  to  surrender  to  the 
wife  her  personal  estate,  and  to  refrain  from  interfering  with 
her  liberty.2  All  papers  in  divorce  cases  are  sealed  after 
decree  and  may  not  be  opened  except  by  order  of  the 
court.3 

That  brings  us  to  the  disposition  of  children  in  divorce 
cases.  No  child  of  any  marriage  declared  to  be  void  or 
dissolved  by  a  court  is  held  to  be  other  than  legitimate.* 
The  law  and  the  courts  guard  the  child's  right  to  honorable 
birth  even  though  the  marriage  may  have  been  illegal.  The 
court  may  make  orders  as  to  the  estate,  assign  the  children 
as  seems  best,  and  provide  for  their  maintenance.  Even 
when  there  is  no  divorce  but  the  parents  have  separated  the 
judge  has  authority  to  assign  the  children.5  The  Supreme 
Court  has  declared  that  in  making  disposition  of  children  the 
court  must  consider,  first,  their  welfare.6  In  all  cases  the 
orders  are  held  to  be  open  rather  than  final  and  may  be 
changed  from  time  to  time  as  the  circumstances  and  espe- 
cially the  best  interests  of  the  children  demand.  Where 
children  were  assigned  to  the  mother,  who  was  a  fit  person 
and  had  a  home,  it  was  held  that  the  order  would  not  be 
changed  unless  it  was  shown  that  it  was  necessary  for  the 
best  interests  of  the  children.7  It  would  be  helpful  if  the 
services  of  an  official  investigator  could  be  had  in  divorce 
cases,  especially  where  the  welfare  of  minor  children  is 
involved.  That  part  of  the  work  is  exactly  in  line  with  that 
of  an  ordinary  probation  officer  of  a  Juvenile  Court,  and  this 

4  w.  Va.  s*4. 

\.  C.  C.  64,  s.  9. 
B.  C.  C.  64,  s.   19. 
B.  C.  C.  78,  a.  7. 
B.  C.  C.  64,  s.   ii. 
37  W.  Va.   746;  35  W.  Va.  698. 
50  W.  Va.  113- 


280  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

officer  might  well  be  called  upon  to  perform  this  additional 
duty. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  been  speaking  as  if  all  children 
were  legitimate.  Consideration  must  now  be  given  to  those 
who  are  not  legitimate. 

Illegitimate  Children.  The  law  prefers  to  have  just  as  few 
illegitimate  children  as  possible,  and  is  slow  to  brand  any 
child  as  a  bastard.  As  has  already  been  stated,  the  general 
rule  is  that  a  child  born  in  wedlock  or  within  ten  months 
after  the  death  of  the  husband  of  the  mother  is  presumed 
to  be  legitimate.1  The  law  will,  however,  permit  this  pre- 
sumption to  be  overcome;  but  places  the  burden  heavily 
upon  him  who  alleges  illegitimacy.  Children  born  of  a 
marriage  held  to  be  void  or  dissolved  by  a  court  are  legiti- 
mate.2 

A  child  born  out  of  wedlock  may  be  legitimated.  If  the 
father  of  the  child  of  an  unmarried  mother  later  marries  her 
and  recognizes  the  child  as  his  own,  it  is  deemed  to  be 
legitimate.3  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  man  have  been 
declared  by  a  court  to  be  the  father,  but  this  would,  of 
course,  be  a  material  fact.  This  law  is  liable  to  lead  to 
confusion.  Ordinarily,  a  man  is  not  held  in  law  to  be  the 
father  of  an  illegitimate  child  until  so  declared.  The  law 
should  be  that  if  a  man,  declared  by  a  court  to  be  the  father 
of  a  child,  later  marries  its  mother  or  in  writing  duly 
acknowledges  that  he  is  its  father,  it  should  be  deemed  to 
be  legitimate.  That  would  make  the  law  definite,  a  thing 
always  desirable. 

Relief  for  the  support  of  an  illegitimate  child  may  be  had 
from  the  father  through  bastardy  proceedings.  This  is  a 
civil  action  and  can  be  instituted  only  by  the  mother;4  but 
once  it  is  begun  it  may  be  carried  on  by  officers  of  the  court 
to  enforce  support  for  the  child  so  as  to  prevent  its  becoming 

1  B.  c.  c.  78,  s.  8. 

2B.  C.  C.  78,  s.  7. 
3  B.  C.  C.  78,  s.  6. 
«68  W.  Va.  54i. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  281 

a  county  charge.1  The  county  court  is  authorized  to  bind 
out  any  child  likely  to  become  a  county  charge,  and  is,  there- 
fore, interested  in  the  case.2 

The  action  may  not  be  begun  until  the  child  is  born,  and 
must  be  brought  within  three  years  of  birth.  An  unmarried 
mother  or  a  married  mother  who  has  lived  apart  from  her 
husband  for  more  than  one  year  may  institute  bastardy 
proceedings  by  charging  before  a  justice  of  the  peace  in 
writing,  under  oath,  that  a  man  is  the  father  of  her  child 
under  three  years  of  age,3  and  thereupon  the  justice  will 
issue  his  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  the  man,  and,  upon  arrest, 
will  bind  him  to  the  Circuit  Court  for  trial.*  In  all  cases 
the  county  attorney  is  required  to  prosecute.5  The  trial  is 
in  the  Circuit  Court  and  by  jury  unless  waived  by  both 
parties.  A  man  found  to  be  the  father  of  an  illegitimate 
child  may  be  ordered  to  pay  fixed  amounts  for  its  support 
and  for  such  a  number  of  years  as  the  court  may  determine. 
Bond  to  guarantee  payments  is  required,  and,  upon  failure  to 
furnish  bond,  the  declared  father  may  be  imprisoned.6 

The  Supreme  Court  has  said  that  a  bastardy  action  is  not 
for  the  purpose  of  recovering  compensation  for  the  mother 
but  to  enforce  support  for  the  child.7  On  the  other  hand, 
it  has  been  held  that  the  mother  may  compromise  with  the 
father  for  a  fair  and  good  consideration.8  It  has  also  been 
held  that  a  contract  to  provide  for  an  illegitimate  child  in 
consideration  that  no  bastardy  action  be  brought  is  enforce- 
able ;  but  the  court  examines  such  a  contract  with  suspicion, 
and  it  must,  therefore,  be  clear  and  definite.9 

It  is  unlawful  for  any  parent  to  abandon  or  fail  to  support 
his  illegitimate  child  under  16  years  of  age.10  This  prob- 

1 75  w.  Va.  588. 

*  B.  C.  C.  80,  s.  2. 
•B.  C.  C.  80,  s.  i. 
«B.  C.  C.  80,  s.  i. 

•  B.  C.  C.  81,  s.  3,  6. 
•B.  C.  C.  80,  s.  4. 

7  78  W.  Va.  791. 

»8i  W.  Va.   791. 

•41    W.    Va.    234;  72   W.    Va.    747. 

10  B.  C.  C.   144,   s.  1 6   c. 


282  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ably  refers  to  the  mother  only.  No  man  could  be  held  to 
support  an  illegitimate  child  unless  he  has  been  declared  to 
be  the  father,  and,  in  that  case,  his  liability  would  be  limited 
by  the  orders  of  the  court. 

In  law,  the  mother  is  the  parent,  guardian  and  custodian 
of  her  illegitimate  child.  She  has  with  regard  to  her  child 
all  the  rights,  powers,  and  duties  of  a  married  father  with 
regard  to  his.  The  fact  that  a  man  has  been  declared  to  be 
the  father  and  ordered  to  pay  stated  amounts  for  its  support 
gives  him  no  rights  in  the  child  and  imposes  no  duty  except 
to  pay  as  ordered,  and  the  fact  that  he  is  ordered  to  support 
or  help  to  support  the  child  does  not  relieve  the  mother  of 
this  duty.  It  is  the  mother's  child,  and,  as  such,  is  fully 
capable  both  of  inheriting  and  of  transmitting  inheritances 
from  her. 

If  the  mother  of  an  illegitimate  child  and  her  offspring 
are  to  receive  proper  consideration  and  to  be  assured  rightful 
aid  from  the  man  in  the  case,  the  law  of  bastardy  will  have 
to  have  written  into  it  the  following  features: 

1.  The   action   should   lie   on   the   juvenile    side   of    the 
Circuit  Court  and  should  be  heard  in  chambers  and  always 
without  trial  by  jury.     It  should  be  as  now,  not  a  criminal 
action,  but  should  be  treated  as  a  combined  action  for  debt 
due  the  woman  and  to  enforce  the  support  of  the  child ;  but 
the  action  should  in  no  way  disturb  the  mother's  exclusive 
right  to  have  the  custody  and  control  of  the  child. 

2.  The  woman  should  have  the  right  to  begin  the  action 
by  alleging  under  oath  that  she  is  pregnant.     It  would  be 
well  to  defer  final  hearing  until  after  the  birth  of  the  child, 
but  a  still-birth  or  death  of  the  child  should  not  be  a  bar 
to  the  action  or  orders  by  the  court  for  the  benefit  of  the 
woman.     The  oath  of  the  woman  should  make  a  prima  facie 
case.     Once  a  case  is  begun  it  should  not  be  settled  except 
by  approval  of  the  court. 

3.  The  action  should  be  for  three  distinct  purposes:  to 
determine  the  paternity  of  the  child,  to  compel  the  father 
to  contribute  to  its  support  up  to  the  age  of  sixteen,  and 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  283 

to  compel  the  man  to  make  such  payment  as  the  court  may 
order  to  the  woman  as  an  aid  for  loss  of  time  and  expenses 
before,  at,  and  after  confinement. 

4.  The  right  to  bring  the  action  should  run  up  to  the 
time  the  child  is  16,  but  should  never  be  brought  except  upon 
the  statement  of  the  mother.     It  should  lie  even  though  the 
child  is  dead,  if  brought  within  one  year  after  its  birth ;  and 
also  against  the  estate  of  a  deceased  man,  if  brought  within 
one  year  after  the  birth.     In  other  words,  the  claims  of  the 
mother  for  aid  and  the  rights  of  the  child  to  support  should 
be  treated  largely  as  debts  against  the  father,  or  his  estate 
when  brought  within  one  year  of  the  birth. 

5.  The  father  should  be  required  to  support  the  child  up 
to  the  age  of  16,  but  all  payments   for  the  care  of  the 
child  should  cease  with  its  death.    Orders  of  the  court  should 
be  held  to  be  liens  against  his  estate. 

Much  is  being  said,  these  days,  about  removing  the  stigma 
from  both  the  mother  and  the  child.  Neither  can  be  done, 
for  society  brands  whomsoever  it  wills  to  brand.  The  most 
that  can  be  done,  by  law,  is  to  make  it  sure  that  the  woman 
has  ample  opportunity  to  compel  the  man  to  aid  her  some- 
what and  to  support  the  child  during  infancy,  if  she  cares 
to  exercise  that  right.  If  the  mother  does  not  care  to  have 
the  court  declare  the  name  of  the  father  of  her  illegitimate 
child,  it  should  remain  undeclared  forever. 

There  are,  of  course,  other  children  who  are  unusually 
and  unfavorably  circumstanced:  defectives,  neglected,  de- 
pendent and  delinquent  children.  These  will  be  considered 
under  Administration — Part  Two  of  this  study. 

OTHER  CIVIL  LAW  OF  INFANCY 

The  general  rule  is,  that  a  child  is  an  infant  until  he 
reaches  the  age  of  21  and  presumed  to  be  unable  to  act  for 
himself ; 1  but  this  rule  is  subject  to  exceptions,  as  girls,  16 
years  of  age,  and  boys,  18  years  of  age,  may,  with  proper 

JB.  c.  c.  46  A,  s.  29. 


284  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

consent,  contract  marriage.1  The  contracts  of  an  infant 
are  not  absolutely  void ;  but  are  simply  voidable,  to  be  rati- 
fied or  disaffirmed  within  a  reasonable  time  after  the  infant 
arrives  at  majority,  as  he  may  elect.2  But  this  is  subject 
to  an  exception  in  that  law  holds  an  infant  to  pay  for  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  will  not,  therefore,  permit  him 
to  disaffirm  his  contract  to  pay  for  these.3  When  the 
contract  is  disaffirmed,  the  infant  must  return  the  con- 
sideration, if  he  has  it.4  It  is  well  established  that  an 
infant  may  avoid  his  deed.  He  may  avoid  any  contract 
made  during  infancy  for  the  surrender  or  release  of  his 
rights.5  He  may  disaffirm  a  release  of  a  railroad  from 
damages  without  restoring  the  consideration,6  and  a  contract 
of  compromise  is  not  binding  against  him  unless  he  chooses 
to  stand  by  it.7 

No  minor  is  allowed  to  prosecute  or  defend  any  civil 
action  in  his  own  name.  His  guardian,  of  course,  prosecutes 
civil  actions  for  the  infant's  estate,  and  he  may  sue  by  his 
next  friend.8  His  interests  are  defended  either  by  his  guard- 
ian or  a  guardian  ad  lit em. ,9  He  cannot  recover  damages 
for  the  loss  of  services  during  minority.10 

In  any  case,  a  child  who  appears  to  the  court  to  be  sensible 
of  the  obligation  to  tell  the  truth  is  competent  as  a  witness.11 

CRIMINAL  LAWS  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF  CHILDREN 

These  are,  in  the  main,  just  about  what  one  would  expect. 
In  addition  to  what  has  already  been  stated,  it  is  a  crime  to 
abduct  or  entice  any  child  from  any  state  institution  or  to 
attempt  to  cause  any  child  to  escape.12  It  is  criminal  for  any 

*  B.  C.  C.  64,  s.  2. 

*  74  W.   Va.  447- 
«  57  W.  Va.  263. 

*  57  W.  Va.  263. 
«5s  W.  Va.   143. 
«42  W.  Va.  112. 

•B3.  C/C.a82,42s2'  14;   40   W.   Va.    564. 
•61  W.  Va.  207. 
"  59  W.  Va.  688. 
"B.  C.  C.  50,    s.    108. 
13  B.  C.  C.  147,  s.  12  a. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  285 

person  to  apprentice,  give  away,  or  otherwise  dispose  of  a 
child  or  to  employ  a  child  as  a  rope  walker,  acrobat,  gymnast, 
contortionist,  rider,  or  for  any  indecent  or  illegal  exhibition  or 
in  any  manner  dangerous  to  life  or  limb,  or  for  purposes 
of  prostitution;  or  to  keep  any  child  in  or  about  any 
assignation  house  or  place  of  obscene,  indecent  or  illegal 
exhibition,1  or  for  any  person  to  cause,  encourage,  or  con- 
tribute to  the  dependency  of  a  child.2 

It  is  unlawful  to  import,  print,  publish,  sell  or  distribute 
any  book  or  other  matter  containing  any  obscene  language, 
print,  picture,  figure  or  description  tending  to  corrupt  the 
morals  of  children,  or  to  have  or  introduce  any  such  book 
or  other  matter  into  any  family  or  place  of  education.3 
It  is  a  crime  to  sell  or  give  to  any  child  under  21  years  of 
age  any  cigarettes  or  cigarette  paper,  or  to  sell,  give  or  fur- 
nish tobacco  in  any  form  to  a  child  under  16  years  of  age,4  or 
for  any  child  under  21  years  of  age  to  make  or  have  ciga- 
rettes or  cigarette  paper ;  and  it  is  made  a  part  of  the  duty 
of  all  peace  officers  to  enforce  this  law  against  the  use  of 
cigarettes.5 

The  legislature  of  1921  amended  the  law  as  to  consent 
for  sexual  intercourse.  It  is  not  rape  for  a  boy  under  16 
years  of  age  to  have  sexual  intercourse  with  a  girl  over  12, 
she  consenting.6  It  is  probable  that  no  boy  under  16  years 
of  age  can  now  be  held  to  answer  with  his  life  for  sexual 
intercourse.  The  legislature  of  1921  wisely  raised  the  age 
of  consent  for  girls  to  intercourse  with  males  over  16  from 
14  to  1 6,  and  just  as  wisely  raised  the  age  at  which  a  boy  may 
be  held  to  be  guilty  of  a  capital  felony  in  respect  to  sexual 
intercourse,  the  girl  consenting,  from  14  to  16. 

B.  C.  C.  144,    s.    16    d. 
B.  C.  C.  46   A,   s.   33. 
B.  C.  C.  149,  s.  ii. 
B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  20  c. 
B.  C.  C.  150,  a.  20  e. 
Chapt.   90,    1921. 


PART  TWO 
ADMINISTRATION 

Law,  as  we  have  been  thinking  of  it,  is,  for  the  most  part, 
remedial.  If  strong  men  and  women  are  to  be  grown  and 
children  are  to  live  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  of 
childhood,  more  than  penalties  for  wrongdoing  in  respect  to 
children  must  be  provided.  There  must  be  positive,  con- 
structive activity  on  the  part  of  the  state,  and  this  brings  us 
to  the  larger  and  far  more  important  part  of  legal  child  care, 
administration. 

Every  child  should  be  properly  cared  for  in  a  good  home. 
When,  for  any  reason,  the  home  fails  or  breaks  down,  the 
state  must  step  in  to  the  aid  of  the  child.  Even  if  there  is 
no  break-down,  the  state  has  its  function  in  respect  to  chil- 
dren, to  keep  watch  over  them.  Then,  too,  there  are  many 
things  needful  that  the  home  cannot  possibly  give,  as  full 
protection  for  health,  education  and  suitable  recreation.  The 
home's  extremity  is  the  state's  opportunity.  The  state  will 
and  should  encourage  the  home  to  accept  aid  from  private 
persons  or  agencies  as  need  arises ;  but,  in  the  end,  it  is  the 
business  of  the  state  to  see  that  every  child  gets  full  and  just 
consideration  and  his  rights. 

The  nation  must  undoubtedly  interest  itself  more  and  more 
in  its  children;  but,  under  our  system  of  government,  so 
long  as  the  states  retain  their  present  powers  it  will  have  to 
look  to  and  work  with  them.  We  have,  then,  both  the 
nation  and  the  home  looking  to  the  state  for  adequate  child 
care.  The  state  is  the  one  organization  that  is  in  free  posi- 
tion and  has  full  power  to  act  for  the  best  interests  of  every 
child.  It  must  hold  itself,  secondarily,  it  is  true,  but  none 
the  less  responsible  for  the  care  of  every  child  within  its 
borders.  It  must  see  that  the  home  functions,  if  need  be 

286 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  287 

it  must  help  it  to  function,  or,  that  being  impossible,  place 
the  child  in  a  new  and  proper  home  and  thereby  render  a 
good  account  of  its  trust  to  the  nation  as  well  as  to  its  own 
people. 

The  state,  in  discharging  its  full  duty  to  childhood,  has 
to  think  of  and  deal  with  two  classes  of  children:  normal 
children  and  handicapped  children,  defective,  dependent, 
neglected  and  delinquent.  Naturally,  it  carries  the  handi- 
capped child  closer  to  its  heart,  but  its  future  depends  largely 
upon  the  sort  of  care  it  assures  to  the  normal  child.  It  dare 
not  neglect  the  normal  child  for  any  great  length  of  time. 
Fortunately,  it  is  possible  to  use  much  of  the  same  state 
machinery  for  the  care  of  both.  There  is  really  not  as  much 
difference  between  the  two  as  one  at  first  thinks.  They  are 
all  children  requiring  some  care. 

The  child  must  be  kept  in  such  physical  state  as  will 
enable  him  to  live  a  complete  child's  life  and  to  come,  in  so 
far  as  possible,  to  strong  manhood  or  womanhood.  This 
means  state  activity  to  insure  health — a  State  Department 
of  Health. 

He  must  be  taught  so  that  he  may  not  only  live  the  full 
life  of  a  child  but  may  come  to  manhood  or  womanhood 
with  that  training  which  is  essential  to  successful  living. 
This  means  state  activity  to  insure  education — a  State 
Department  of  Education. 

He  must  be  left  free  to  grow  physically,  mentally  and 
spiritually.  He  must  not  be  made  to  carry  the  burdens  or 
do  the  work  of  adults.  This  means  state  activity  to  regu- 
late employment — a  State  Department  of  Labor. 

He  must,  if  in  any  manner  handicapped,  have  such  special 
care  and  treatment  as  will  make  his  child's  life  as  nearly 
normal  as  possible.  This  means  state  activity  for  all  handi- 
capped children — a  State  Department  of  Child  Welfare. 

DEPARTMENT   OF    HEALTH 

State  Department.  The  West  Virginia  State  Depart- 
ment of  Health  is  under  the  direction  of  a  Commissioner 


288  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

of  Health  and  a  Public  Health  Council  of  which  the  Commis- 
sioner is  a  member.  The  Commissioner,  who  is  appointed  by 
the  Governor  with  consent  of  the  Senate  for  a  term  of  four 
years,  is  required  by  law  to  be  skilled  in  sanitary  science  and 
experienced  in  public  health  administration.1  As  executive 
officer  of  the  Public  Health  Council  it  is  his  duty  to  administer 
the  health  law  and  rules  adopted  by  the  council,  to  appoint  di- 
rectors and  assistants  and  to  assist  local  health  officers  in  the 
performance  of  their  duties,  to  assist  in  making  surveys,  and 
to  inspect  schools  and  factories  and  to  make  reports.2 
Whenever  there  is  a  failure  on  the  part  of  the  local  health 
officers  to  act  in  cases  of  emergency  the  Commissioner  and 
Council  have  authority  to  step  in  and  act,  even  to  remove 
any  health  officer  or  board.3  The  Commissioner  has  full 
authority  to  appoint  inspectors  to  act  as  his  representatives 
and  under  him  in  enforcing  health  laws  and  rules  with  full 
right  of  entry.4 

The  Public  Health  Council  consists  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Health  and  six  other  members  appointed  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  Commissioner.  Each  member  is  required  to 
be  a  graduate  in  medicine  with  five  years'  experience  in 
practice.  The  term  of  each  member  is  four  years,  three 
going  out  every  other  year.5  It  has  power  to  adopt  rules 
which  really  have  the  force  of  law.6  It  is  authorized  by 
law  to  establish  quarantine,  to  prepare  vaccine  and  other 
serums  for  free  distribution  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  to 
apply  for  injunctions  and  to  make  regulations  to  insure 
clean  milk,7  to  examine  boats  and  trains,  and  to  disinfect  to 
prevent  the  spread  of  disease.8  It  examines  and  grants 
licenses  for  the  practice  of  medicine.9 

At  present,  there  are  in  the  State  Department  of  Health 

»B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  i. 

»B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  i,  2. 

»B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  3. 

*B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  4. 

»B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  i,  3. 

«B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  3. 

7B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  2. 

8B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  8. 

»B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  8  a. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  289 

the  following  eight  divisions  with  duties  as  hereinafter  indi- 
cated. This  very  exact  information  was  very  kindly  pre- 
pared and  furnished  by  the  State  Department  of  Health. 

1.  Division   of  Preventable   Diseases.     No   director,   in 
charge  of  director  of  Division  2.     Function,  securing  reports 
from  part-time  local  health  officers. 

2.  Division  of  Vital  Statistics.     Director,  clerk  and  ste- 
nographer.   Function,  collecting  and  compiling  reports.   (The 
legislature  of  1921  enacted  a  new  vital  statistics  law.    It  is 
hoped  that  this  will  place  the  state  in  the  U.  S.  Registration 
Area.) 

3.  Division  of  Public  Health  Nursing  and  Child  Welfare. 
Director,    state    supervisor    and    stenographer.      Function, 
supervision  of   community  and   county  nurses,   and  child 
health  education  work. 

4.  Division  of  Laboratories.    Director,  assistant  director, 
bacteriologist,  and  chemist.     Function,   analysis   of   water, 
and  diagnosis. 

5.  Division  of  Sanitary  Engineering.    Chief  engineer  and 
assistant  engineer.      Function,   advice   and   supervision   of 
water  supplies. 

6.  Bureau   of   Venereal  Diseases,   in   conjunction   with 
U.  S.  Public  Health  Service.    Director  and  assistant.    Func- 
tion, reporting  and  education  in  venereal  diseases. 

7.  Bureau  of  Rural  Sanitation,  in  conjunction  with  Inter- 
national Health  Board.     Director.     Function,  education  for 
the  establishment  of  county  health  units. 

8.  Division  of  Sanitary  Inspection.     No  director.     Func- 
tion, investigation  of  sanitary  conditions  and  milk  supplies. 

In  addition  to  these  the  Public  Health  Council  has  medical 
control  of  the  state  tuberculosis  sanatoria.1 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  state  organization  to  promote  public 
health.  It  is  simple,  the  Commissioner,  members  of  the 
Council  and  agents  are  selected  in  the  right  way,  and  there 

*B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  4. 


290  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

is  ample  authority  for  the  state  department  to  do  whatever 
needs  to  be  done.  But  the  state  capital  is  a  long  way  from 
most  folk — too  far  for  direct  action.  If  there  is  to  be 
effective  public  health  work,  county  or  city  health  officials 
will  have  to  act. 

County  and  City  Boards  of  Health.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
Public  Health  Council  upon  the  recommendation  of  the 
county  court  of  each  county  to  appoint  a  legally  qualified 
physician  as  county  health  officer,  who  holds  office  for  a  term 
of  four  years,  but  may  be  removed  for  cause,  and  is  paid  at 
least  one  hundred  dollars  a  year  and  expenses.  He  (the 
county  health  officer),  the  president  of  the  county  court,  and 
the  county  attorney  constitute  the  county  board  of  health.1 

Incorporated  cities  and  towns  may  establish  their  own 
local  boards  of  health,  which,  when  established,  have  the 
power  of  county  boards.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  county 
board  does  not  run  in  cities  or  towns  having  local  boards. 
The  state  board  acts  through  either.2 

Local  health  boards  (county  or  city)  have  authority  to 
establish  quarantine,3  and  may,  upon  petition  of  100  voters, 
not  only  establish  quarantine  but  enforce  vaccination  in  any 
city,  town  or  village.  The  county  court  may  also  order  that 
public  school  children  be  vaccinated.4  This  probably  does 
not  hold  in  cities  or  towns  which  have  a  separate  health 
board.5  It  has  been  held  that  a  mandamus  will  lie  to  compel 
a  city  to  pay  for  the  treatment  of  the  poor  in  its  care.6 
County  health  work  would  probably  come  under  the  same 
rule.  Any  county  court  or  city  or  town  council  may  provide 
for  a  full-time  public  health  officer  and  levy  a  tax  of  not 
more  than  three  cents  on  each  hundred  dollars  of  valuation 
for  this  purpose.7 

Now  that  we  have  seen  the  plan  of  organization  for  state 

B.  C.  C.   150,  s.  6. 

B.  C.  C.   150,  s.  6. 

B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  7. 

B.  C.  C.   150,  s.  21. 

B.  C.  C.  47,  s.  4. 

39  W.  Va.  526. 

B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  3  a. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  291 

and  county  health  work  let  us  see  what  there  is  in  the  way 
of  general  health  law,  which  the  county  health  authorities, 
first,  and  then  the  state  health  authorities  are  expected  to 
enforce. 

Health  Law.  It  is  unlawful  to  sell  or  offer  for  sale  any 
diseased  or  unwholesome  food  or  drink  without  notifying 
the  buyer,1  or  to  adulterate  for  the  purpose  of  sale  any 
food  or  drink  or  offer  it  when  adulterated  for  sale.2  Both 
the  Public  Health  Council  and  the  county  attorney  have 
authority  to  inspect  foods  and  drinks  and  to  take  samples 
for  examination.3  It  is  unlawful  to  pollute  any  water  sup- 
ply or  to  throw  polluting  matter  upon  any  street,  alley,  or 
public  place,  or  within  100  feet  of  any  public  road,  or  for 
any  owner  or  occupant  of  any  premises  to  permit  such  pol- 
luting matter  to  remain  upon  his  premises.4 

It  is,  of  course,  possible  to  have  a  special  act  for  a  county, 
or  city  or  town,  or  for  any  of  these  to  act  under  the  general 
law  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a  full-time  health 
officer,  as  heretofore  pointed  out;  but  special  work  in  cer- 
tain counties  has  been  held  back  by  the  fact  that  the  county 
health  officer  could  not  be  dismissed  from  his  office. 

The  legislature  of  1921  made  provision  for  the  establish- 
ment of  dental  clinics  by  school  districts  and  for  the  treat- 
ment of  poor  children,5  but  under  this  permissive  act  it  is 
not  likely  that  much  will  be  done. 

The  truth  is  that  the  state  Public  Health  Council  is  not 
expected  to  do  much.  Under  the  present  plan  of  county 
health  organization  it  could  not,  in  justice,  be  expected  to 
do  much.  The  state  organization  is,  as  has  been  said,  simple, 
and  its  scope  of  authority  is  wide,  but  it  lacks  funds.  The 
legislature  of  1921  appropriated,  all  told,  only  $74,800  a 
year  for  the  years  1921-2  and  1922-3  for  all  state  health 
activities. 

1  B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  19. 

aB.  C.  C.  150,  s.  20,  20  b  a. 

»B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  19  a,  20  b  i. 

*B.  C.  C.  150,  s.  20  c,  d. 

8  Chapt.    139,    1920. 


292  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

An  investigation  was  recently  made  in  the  office  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Health  for  the  purpose  of  comparing  the 
state's  expenditures  for  health  per  capita  of  the  rural  popu- 
lation with  that  of  other  rural  and  somewhat  similar  states. 
It  was  found  that  for  the  year  1920,  on  the  basis  of  the 
rural  population,  there  was  expended  in  health  work  for 
each  rural  inhabitant  in  the  following  states  the  amounts 
shown : 

South  Carolina  16  cents  per  capita   (rural) 

Kentucky 15       "        "         "  "    ' 

North  Carolina  13       " 

Virginia 10 

Mississippi 9 

Alabama  8 

Georgia  8 

Tennessee   5 

West  Virginia.     3 

The  appropriation  by  the  legislature  of  West  Virginia  for 
state  health  work  for  1921-2  and  1922-3  brings  the  amount 
per  capita  (rural)  up  to  approximately  5  cents,  about  the 
same  as  that  of  Tennessee  for  1920.  What  can  a  state 
expect  in  public  health  when  it  invests  less  than  six  cents 
per  rural  inhabitant,  knowing,  at  the  same  time,  that  most 
of  its  counties  are  investing  almost  nothing? 

Rural  health  can  be  had  for  a  price;  but  not  much  of  it 
can  be  had  at  less  than  six  cents  a  head.  The  state  ought 
to  do  one  of  two  things:  quit  all  health  work  it  is  now 
doing  except  that  of  taking  and  compiling  vital  statistics, 
or  else  go  on  and  do  some  real  work  in  rural  communities. 
It  will  not,  cannot,  do  the  former,  and  we  may,  therefore, 
expect  that  it  will  move,  perhaps  slowly  but  certainly,  along 
the  road  to  the  latter. 

When  it  starts  to  move  it  will  have  to  consider  the  matter 
of  county  health  organization.  Cities,  being  authorized  to 
maintain  their  own  health  boards,  are  expected,  of  course, 
to  look  after  their  own  health  work.  The  county  health 
board  now  offers  almost  no  hope  for  children  who  may  be 
in  need  of  care.  One  member  of  it,  the  president  of  the 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  293 

county  court,  is  interested  primarily  in  keeping  down  taxes, 
and  is  selected  not  at  all  because  of  his  knowledge  of  health 
matters,  or  vital  interest  in  them ;  another,  the  county  attor- 
ney, has  almost  the  same  point  of  view  and  the  same  primary 
interest,  and  the  third  member  being  paid  frequently  only 
one  hundred  dollars  a  year,  the  legal  minimum,  could  not  be 
expected  to  exert  himself  to  any  great  extent.  This  board 
has  outlived  its  usefulness  and  should  be  "scrapped." 

Every  county  should  have  a  local  health  board  of  three 
members  named  by  the  county  court,  one  every  second  year, 
and  each  for  a  term  of  six  years.  It  should  have  definite 
powers  under  the  State  Public  Health  Council  and  should 
be  authorized  to  expend  public  funds  within  legal  limitations. 
The  people  of  every  county  should  have  the  benefit  of  the 
services  of  a  public  health  unit  consisting  of  a  public  health 
officer  and  a  public  health  nurse  with  a  laboratory  in  charge 
of  one  skilled  in  that  sort  of  work.  The  people,  the  children 
of  the  rural  counties,  need  this  more  than  any  others,  and 
the  more  remote  the  county  the  greater  the  need. 

Now  comes  the  problem.  Rural  counties  are  able  and 
ought  to  spend  considerable  more  public  funds  in  promoting 
public  health  than  they  are  now  spending;  but  it  will  be  a 
long  time  before  many  of  the  strictly  rural,  and  especially 
agricultural,  counties  will  feel  themselves  able  to  support  a 
public  health  unit.  The  law  now  authorizes  a  county  to 
establish  a  health  unit  with  a  full-time  health  officer,  and 
it  is  possible  that  the  law  authorizing  the  establishment  of  a 
hygienic  laboratory  by  two  or  more  counties  could  be  inter- 
preted as  granting  authority  for  the  establishment  of  a 
district  health  unit  by  two  or  more  counties.  But  all  this 
is  optional.  There  is  now,  or  rather  there  was  in  the  month 
of  May,  1921,  but  one  full-time  county  health  officer  in  the 
whole  state.  The  work  started  to  move  and  then  stopped. 
The  county  optional  plan  has  hung  fire. 

The  state  and  county  will  have  to  join  in  the  work.  Each 
county  court  should  be  required  to  levy  a  specific  tax  as 
determined  by  the  county  health  board  for  health  work  and 


294  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

the  funds  thus  derived  should  be  expended  by  the  new  health 
board  herein  suggested.  Cities  should  not  be  encouraged  or 
permitted  to  pull  selfishly  apart  from  the  county.  If  they 
desire  to  do  additional  health  work,  they  should  provide 
additional  funds.  The  state  should  supplement  the  funds 
provided  by  the  county  and  perhaps  the  best  way  would  be 
for  the  state  to  pay  the  salary  of  the  public  health  officer 
who  should  be  selected  by  the  county  board  upon  the  ap- 
proval of  the  state  department. 

In  order  that  the  expense  may  not  be  burdensome  it  would 
be  wise  to  group  two  or  three  counties,  conveniently  located, 
into  a  health  district  under  the  care  of  a  public  health 
officer  with  a  central  laboratory  and  a  health  nurse  for  each 
county.  The  state  should  pay  the  health  officer,  each  county 
should  pay  its  nurse,  and  the  other  expenses  should  be  borne 
by  the  counties  joining  according  to  property  valuation  or 
the  number  of  inhabitants.  It  would  be  simple  for  each 
county  board  of  health  to  select  its  representative  on  a  district 
health  board. 

It  would  be  no  trouble  to  divide  the  state  into  not 
more  than  25  districts.  The  expense  to  the  state  in 
payment  of  25  public  health  officers  and  such  other 
state  employees  as  would  be  needed  for  a  complete  state 
Department  of  Health  ought  not  to  exceed  $100,000  and  the 
expense  to  the  counties  ought  not  to  exceed  another  $100,- 
ooo.  This  would  mean  that  the  state  would  be  spending 
about  12  cents  per  capita  of  the  rural  population.  The  state 
and  counties  jointly  would  be  spending  approximately  20 
cents  per  capita  of  the  rural  population,  hence  the  counties 
would  be  putting  up  8  cents  to  the  state's  12  cents.  That 
is  fair.  Local  effort  should  be  encouraged. 

It  is  generally  accepted  that  there  should  be  some  con- 
venient person  to  whom  pregnant  women  may  go  for  exam- 
ination and  instruction  in  the  care  of  themselves  and  their 
children;  that  children  should  be  examined  from  time  to 
time  to  the  end  that  their  parents  may  be  advised  as  to  their 
care;  that  bad  teeth,  bad  tonsils,  and  adenoids  should  be 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  295 

treated ;  that  other  defects  should,  if  possible,  be  remedied ; 
and  that  the  good  health  and  proper  development  of  every 
child  be  made  reasonably  certain.  The  law  now  requires 
that  children  in  independent  districts  be  examined  by  dental 
inspectors.1  There  is  no  reason  for  leaving  out  the  rural 
child,  and  this  suggests  a  plan  by  which  the  whole  job  can  be 
done — twelve  cents  invested  yearly  by  the  state  in  good 
health  for  the  rural  child,  just  about  20  cents  by  the  state 
and  counties.  If  good  health  is  worth  anything  at  all  to 
the  state  and  county,  it  is  worth  that  much ;  if  public  health 
can  be  bought,  the  price  named  is  low,  almost  too  low  for 
proper  appreciation. 

Take  the  Eastern  Panhandle :  The  three  counties  of  Jeffer- 
son, Berkeley  and  Morgan  ought  to  unite  to  form  a  health 
district.  This  would  be  by  action  of  the  three  new  health 
boards  under  the  approval  of  the  State  Commissioner.  The 
district  health  board  should  be  composed  of  three  members, 
one  elected  by  each  county  health  board.  The  health  office 
should  be  located  at  Martinsburg  in  charge  of  a  full-time 
health  officer  approved  by  the  Public  Health  Council.  There 
should  be  a  health  office  at  the  county  court  house  in  each 
of  the  three  counties  in  charge  of  a  public  health  nurse,  to 
be  paid  out  of  the  county  health  funds. 

The  public  health  officer  of  this  district  could  go  in  an 
automobile  from  Martinsburg  to  any  part  of  his  district  in 
less  than  half  a  day.  Each  county  would  have  the  full-time 
services  of  a  health  nurse  and  one-third  of  the  time  and  the 
supervision  of  a  trained  public  health  officer  at  a  yearly  cost 
of  not  more  than  $2,000,  and  the  state  would  have  the  full- 
time  services  of  four  trained  workers  in  that  district  of  three 
counties.  This  ought  to  give  some  assurance  that  all  the 
children  would  be  looked  after,  and  that  none  would  die  or 
suffer  from  ignorance  or  neglect. 

Other  counties  fall  by  geographical  location  into  just  as 
convenient  groupings.  Three  or  four,  at  most  five,  counties 
might,  by  reason  of  the  population,  find  it  best  to  maintain 

JChapt.  2.     See  64,  1921. 


296  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

a  county  health  unit.  In  that  case  the  state  should  maintain 
its  state-paid  public  health  officer  just  as  in  health  districts. 

There  is  another  matter  to  be  considered.  The  tendency 
of  all  state  departments  is  to  increase  the  number  of 
employees  at  the  state  capital.  West  Virginia  will  be  no 
exception ;  there  are  no  exceptions  to  this  rule.  The  Com- 
missioner and  the  Public  Health  Council  may  be  in  need 
of  more  help.  What  better  help  could  the  state  department 
have  than  twenty-five  of  its  official  agents  scattered  over  the 
state  and  a  public  health  nurse  in  every  county?  Through 
these  it  could  keep  in  almost  daily  touch  with  the  whole 
population.  Except  for  special  laboratory  work  and  the 
collecting  and  filing  of  vital  statistics  and  other  reports,  the 
function  of  the  State  Department  of  Health  should  be  to 
direct  and  supervise  county  and  district  health  officers.  Its 
staff  of  field  workers  should  be  kept  low  or  rather  the  dis- 
trict and  county  health  workers  should  be  its  staff. 

This  view  is  pressed  because  the  fact  that  any  county  has 
now,  by  law,  the  right  to  establish  a  county  health  unit 
shows  that  it  is  believed  to  be  a  good  plan.  Naturally,  the 
better,  stronger  counties  will  take  advantage  of  this  optional 
law  first.  We  are  thinking  mostly  of  children  in  remote 
counties,  and  seeking  some  simple  way  by  which  the  state 
can  make,  for  them,  certain  definite  assurances  of  health. 
The  expansion  of  this  optional  county  health  unit  law  into  a 
general  county  health  law  seems  to  be  not  only  the  best, 
but  the  only  way.  Each  county  court  should  be  compelled 
by  law  to  levy  a  tax  for  public  health  purposes  and  then 
the  state  should  do  its  part.  The  national  government  will 
perhaps  be  ready  very  soon  to  make  grants  of  money  for 
certain  parts  of  this  work.  The  state,  if  it  is  to  participate 
as  it  ought,  will  have  to  be  prepared  to  do  its  part.  What 
we  suggest  is  logical  in  that  the  state  will  be  ready  to  become 
the  vital  connecting  link  between  the  national  government  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  child  in  the  rural  county  on  the  other. 
The  result  would  be  that  the  federal  government,  the  state 
and  the  county  would  be  united  in  promoting  and  safe- 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  297 

guarding  the  health  of  all  the  children  of  the  state,  and  in 
aiding  the  home  to  do  whatever  needs  to  be  done,  a  thing 
much  to  be  desired  and  not  to  be  rejected  because  it  will  cost 
approximately  15  cents  more  than  is  now  being  paid  per 
capita  (rural). 

DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATION 

West  Virginia  has  had  from  the  very  first  a  continuing 
interest  in  education.  The  constitution  makes  it  the  duty 
of  the  legisature  to  provide,  by  general  law,  for  a  thorough 
and  efficient  system  of  free  schools.1  This  applies  equally 
to  white  and  colored  children,  but  they  may  not  be  taught  in 
the  same  school.2  Free  schools  have  had  much  of  the  atten- 
tion of  successive  legislatures.  In  each  of  the  last  two 
sessions,  much  time  was  spent  in  amending  the  free  school 
law.  It  may  be  accepted  as  a  fact  that  the  thinking  people 
of  the  state  want  every  child  educated  and  are  planning  to 
that  end. 

State.  To  have  the  oversight  of  this  big  undertaking,  the 
constitution  provides  for  the  office  of  State  Superintendent 
of  Free  Schools.3  Unfortunately,  he  is  elected  by  direct 
vote  for  a  term  of  four  years,4  instead  of  being  selected,  as 
the  heads  of  universities  and  colleges  and  superintendents 
of  city  schools  are  selected,  by  a  board. 

There  is  a  State  Board  of  Education  composed,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  State  Superintendent,  of  six  members  appointed 
by  the  Governor  with  consent  of  the  Senate.5  It  was  created 
to  advise  with  the  State  Superintendent  and  to  aid  him  in 
the  discharge  of  his  duties.  The  law  (perhaps  wisely)  de- 
clares that  not  more  than  four  of  the  six  appointive  members 
shall  be  of  the  same  political  party;  but  just  why  any  one 
should  have  to  belong  to  one  of  the  two  dominant  political 
parties  in  order  to  be  eligible  to  membership  in  the  State 

1  Const.  XII,  s.  i. 

2  Const.  XII,  s.  8. 

•  Const.  XII,  s.  i. 

*  Ibid. 
•Chapt.  i,  1921. 


298  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARF 

Board  of  Education  is  not  clear.1  The  most  suitable  person 
might  not  belong  to  either  of  the  two  dominant  parties. 
Independence  in  voting  is  held  by  some  to  be  a  virtue.  The 
Governor  should  have  the  right  to  name  the  members  regard- 
less of  party  affiliations,  and  should  be  held  to  account  for 
any  failure  on  their  part. 

The  duties  and  powers  of  the  State  Board  of  Education 
and  the  State  Superintendent  are  ample  for  the  management 
and  direction  of  the  system  of  free  schools;2  but  the  general 
law  is  limited  by  an  unfortunately  large  number  of  special 
school  acts  for  cities,  towns  and  independent  districts. 
Special  school  acts  should  not  be  necessary,  and  the  legis- 
lature ought  to  repeal  every  one  of  them,  at  the  same  time 
taking  care  to  see  that  the  general  school  law  is  wide  enough 
for  all  classes  of  communities. 

In  addition  to  the  management  of  the  free  school  system, 
as  we  ordinarily  understand  it,  the  State  Board  of  Education 
has  the  educational  control  of  the  State  University,  the  state 
normal  schools,  and  the  school  for  the  deaf  and  blind.3  It 
has  educational  control  of  the  Industrial  School  for  Boys 
(White),  the  Industrial  School  for  Girls  (White),4  and 
will  have  the  same  control  over  the  Industrial  Home  for 
Colored  Girls  and  the  Industrial  School  for  Colored  Boys,5 
and  over  the  Training  School  for  Mental  Defectives.6  It 
has  supervision  of  the  training  of  teachers  and  certificates 
them,7  prescribes  courses  of  study  for  the  different  classes 
of  public  schools,8  is  authorized  to  require  that  plans  of 
schoolhouses  for  smaller  districts  be  submitted  to  it  for 
approval,9  adopts  text  books,10  and  cooperates  with  the  fed- 
eral government  in  promoting  vocational  education.11 

1  Chapt.   i,  1921. 

2  Chapt.  2,  sec.   1-26,  1919. 
a  Chapt.  2,  sec.  7,  1919. 

*  Chapt.  2,  sec.   159,  1919. 
6  Chapts.  154,  155,  1921. 

6  Chapt.  131,  1921. 

7  Chapt.  2,  sec.  8,  1919. 

8  Chapt.  2,  sec.  9,  1921. 

8  Chapt.  2,  sec.   10,  1919. 

10  Chapt.  2,  1921. 

11  Chapt.  2,  sec.  131,  1919. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  299 

The  State  Superintendent  is  executive  officer  of  the  State 
Board  of  Education  and,  as  such,  has  supervision  of  the 
state's  system  of  public  education,  and  is  charged  with  the 
duty  of  seeing  that  the  school  law  and  rules  and  regulations 
of  the  State  Board  of  Education  are  enforced.  The  law  re- 
quires that  his  academic  and  professional  training  be  the 
equivalent  of  graduation  from  a  standard  university  or  col- 
lege and  he  must  have  had  five  years'  experience  in  public 
school  work.1 

The  superintendent  ought  to  be  selected  by  the  State  Board 
of  Education.  The  burden  of  finding  the  best  person  for 
the  position  should  be  thrown  directly  upon  the  members  of 
the  State  Board,  and  then  they  should  be  held  responsible  for 
the  conduct  of  the  free  school  system.  There  is  no  more 
reason  for  electing  the  State  Superintendent  of  Schools  by 
direct  vote  than  for  selecting  the  Commissioner  of  Health  or 
an  engineer  in  the  same  manner.  All  are  jobs  for  experts. 

County.  Getting  out  now  into  the  country  and  leaving 
out  of  consideration  cities,  towns  and  independent  districts, 
for  this  is  strictly  a  study  of  the  rural  child,  we  come,  first, 
to  the  County  Superintendent  of  Schools.  He  is,  in  fact,  the 
only  county  school  officer,  there  being  no  county  board  of 
education.  He  is  elected  by  direct  vote  of  the  people;  his 
term  of  office  is  four  years.  The  law  starts  bravely  out  to 
require  him  to  hold  a  life  certificate  with  nine  weeks'  training 
in  school  administration  and  supervision  or  a  school  super- 
visor's certificate,  or  to  be  graduated  from  a  standard  normal 
school,  or  to  have  had  education,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education,  equivalent  thereto,  and  then  grows 
weak  in  that  it  makes  eligible  any  one  who  held  a  first  grade 
certificate  prior  to  July,  1922,  and  who  has  taught  for  ten 
years  and  has  had  as  much  as  nine  weeks'  training  in  school 
administration  and  supervision,  and  then  still  further  weak- 
ens by  making  service  in  the  World  War  count  for  double 
time  in  actual  teaching.2 

1  Chapt.  2,  sec.   17-26,   1919. 

2  Chapt.  5,  1921. 


300  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

The  county  superintendent  has  a  limited  control  of  the 
public  schools  of  his  county.  He  explains  the  school  law, 
visits  schools,  confers  with  teachers  and  district  boards, 
settles  controversies  and  aids  the  State  Board  of  Education 
in  standardizing  the  public  schools  of  his  county.  He  has 
authority  temporarily  to  suspend  a  teacher  for  cause,  to 
close  a  school  when  the  premises  are  a  menace  to  the  health 
or  safety  of  the  pupils,  and  is  the  financial  secretary  for  each 
local  district  board.1  He  aids  the  State  Board  in  holding  the 
yearly  teachers'  institute  of  one  week  ;  2  and  in  holding  ex- 
aminations for  teacher's  certificates  but,  by  this,  it  must  not 
be  understood  that  he  prepares  questions,  grades  papers,  or 
grants  certificates  —  all  this  is  done  by  the  state  department.3 
The  law  specifically  exempts  independent  districts  from  even 
this  not  very  complete  control  which  the  county  superin- 
tendent has  over  ordinary  public  schools.4  The  legislature  of 
1921  empowered  and  made  it  the  duty  of  the  county  court 
to  provide  funds  for  clerical  help  for  the  county  superintend- 
ent up  to  the  amount  of  $1,200  a  year.5 

There  is  no  county  board  of  education.  In  fact,  strictly 
speaking,  there  is  no  county  control  of  the  public  schools,  no 
county  system;  for  at  best  the  county  superintendent  is,  in 
law,  only  an  educational  adviser  to  the  district  boards.  He 
has  no  authority  to  approve  or  disapprove  any  particular 
teacher  for  any  particular  school.  All  this  lies  with  the  dis- 
trict board.  The  general  law  provides  no  way  by  which  a 
county  may  act  as  a  unit  in  providing  educational  advantages 
for  all  its  children. 

There  should  be  a  county  board  of  education.  It  should 
be  charged  with  the  conduct  of  the  public  schools  of  the 
county  including  all  independent  districts  and  the  public 
school  systems  of  towns  and  small  cities,  but  larger  cities 
may  be  left  independent  of  the  county  board  and  county 


1  Chapt.  2,  sec.  31-40, 

3  Chapt.  2,  sec.  113,  1919. 

8  Chapt  2,  sec.  96-112,  1919. 

4  Chapt.  2,  sec.  35,  1919- 
'  Chapt.  6,  1921. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  301 

superintendent.  One  of  the  chief  duties  of  the  county  board 
of  education  should  be  to  select  and  employ  the  county  super- 
intendent who  should  then  become  the  executive  officer  of  the 
board.  The  district  system  need  not  be  broken  up  but  coun- 
ties should  be  encouraged  to  act  as  a  unit  and  provision 
should  be  made  in  the  law  whereby  the  people  of  the  county 
could,  by  vote,  provide  additional  free  school  facilities  for 
all  the  children.  There  was,  perhaps,  a  time  when  it  was 
wise  to  encourage  little  local  districts  to  "go  it  alone";  but 
that  time  is  now  gone.  The  county  should  be  the  unit  of 
public  school  administration  to  the  end  that  every  child  be 
provided  with  adequate  opportunities  and  facilities  for 
schooling. 

District.  A  school  district  is  a  magisterial  district.  There 
may  be,  in  fact  there  always  are,  in  it  a  number  of  sub-dis- 
tricts, and  schoolhouses.  Each  is  controlled  by  a  district 
board  composed  of  three  members  elected  by  a  vote  of  the 
people.1  It  holds  all  school  property,  determines  school  sites 
and  playgrounds  with  power  to  condemn  land  up  to  five 
acres,  provides  buildings,  appoints  the  teachers,  may  dismiss 
a  teacher  for  cause,  and  has  general  control  of  the  free 
schools  of  the  district.2  In  addition,  this  board  is  authorized, 
if  it  chooses,  to  appoint  a  trustee,  or  three  trustees,  for  each 
school,  to  name  a  district  supervisor  and  for  the  whole  year 
round,  if  desired,  to  provide  kindergartens,  evening,  part- 
time  and  vocational  schools,  and  other  recreational  or  com- 
munity activities,  to  provide  libraries  and  free  text-books, 
and  to  establish  a  teachers'  retirement  fund.3  Ordinary  dis- 
tricts may  provide  for  medical  and  dental  inspection,  and 
employ  nurses.  Independent  districts  are  required  to 
employ  medical  and  dental  inspectors.4 

The  board  of  any  district,  ordinary  or  independent,  may, 
when  ordered  by  a  vote  of  the  people,  establish  a  high-school 

1  Chapt.  2,  sec.  41,  1919- 

'Chapt.  a,  sec.  46,  50,  57,  58,  1919. 

•  Chapt.  2,  sec.  53.  56,  61,  63,  65,  66,  1919. 

*  Chapt.  a,  sec.  64,  1919- 


302  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

or  join  with  the  board  of  another  district  in  establishing  a 
union  high-school.  A  district  not  having  a  high-school  is 
required  to  pay  the  tuition  of  all  pupils  who  have  completed 
the  elementary  schools  and  are  attending  a  high-school  out- 
side the  district.  The  state  aids  in  the  support  of  high- 
schools  according  to  class,  there  being  three  classes  provided 
for  by  law.1 

There  may  be  good  reason  why  ordinary  school  districts 
should  be  retained,  but  certainly  independent  districts  exist- 
ing by  special  acts  should  be  abolished.  County  boards  of 
education  should  have  authority  to  establish  special  taxing 
districts,  but  they  should  be  just  as  much  under  the  control 
of  the  county  board  of  education  as  ordinary  districts.  If 
districts  and  district  boards  are  to  be  retained,  some  of  the 
authority  now  lodged  by  law  with  them  should  be  transferred 
to  the  county  board,  when  established,  as  the  selecting  of 
school  lots,  erection  of  schoolhouses,  enforcement  of  com- 
pulsory attendance,  and  provision  of  medical  inspection  for 
all  children.  This  last  should  be  peculiarly  a  function  of  the 
county  board  to  the  end  that  every  child  may  have  the  ad- 
vantages of  it.  If  medical  and  dental  inspection  is  worth 
while  for  children  of  some  schools  it  must  be  desirable  for 
all. 

For  the  rounding  out  of  the  state's  public  school  system  a 
county  board  of  education  is  necessary.  But  it  does  not 
follow  that  the  districts  should  be  destroyed.  For  some  rea- 
sons it  would  be  well  to  let  the  presidents  of  the  district 
board  constitute  the  members  of  the  county  board ;  but  there 
are,  of  course,  some  objections.  The  number  of  members 
would  be  objectionable ;  boards  with  many  members  are  not 
usually  a  success.  Also  the  terms  of  the  presidents  of  the 
district  boards  expire  at  the  same  time  every  four  years.2 
This  would  mean  that  the  county  would  have  a  new  board 
every  four  years,  whereas  it  ought  if  possible  to  be  a  body 
not  subject  periodically  to  complete  change.  A  solution  of 

1  Chapt.  2,  sec.  78-81,   1919. 
2Chapt.  2,  sec.  41,  1919. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  303 

the  whole  problem  would  be  a  board  composed  of  three  mem- 
bers, each  holding  for  a  term  of  six  years,  one  being  elected 
at  the  school  election  every  two  years. 

Teachers  in  ordinary  free  school  districts  are  required  to 
hold  a  state  conference  j1  but  some  boards  of  cities  and  towns 
and  independent  districts  do  not  require  a  state  certificate. 
There  probably  was  a  time  when  the  state's  standard  for 
certificates  was  too  low  for  these  independent  districts  but 
that  should  not  be  the  case  now.  The  law  contemplates  that 
every  teacher  in  a  public  school  should  hold  a  state  certificate 
and  there  should  be  no  exception.  Every  person  who  re- 
ceives and  teaches  any  child  of  compulsory  school  age  should 
be  required  to  hold  a  state  certificate  of  proficiency  when 
attendance  at  such  school  is  taken  in  lieu  of  attendance  upon 
the  public  school. 

Children.  Finally,  we  consider  those  for  whom  the  whole 
system  of  public  education  exists — the  pupils.  What  assur- 
ances are  there  that  every  child  will  attend  a  school  of  the 
proper  sort,  or  what  are  his  chances  of  slipping  through  the 
educational  net  or,  perhaps,  of  getting  hung  in  its  meshes? 
A  county  system  of  free  schools  undoubtedly  gives  more  as- 
surance to  each  child;  but  the  district  system  is  not  being 
worked  to  its  fullest  possibilities.  District  boards  are  au- 
thorized to  provide  well  built,  properly  equipped  school 
houses.  The  law  presumes  that  ample  playgrounds  will  be 
provided.  The  County  Superintendent,  the  State  Superin- 
tendent and  the  State  Board  of  Education  are  all  authorized 
to  see  that  this  is  done;  but  in  many  cases  it  is  not  done. 
There  are  hundreds  of  schoolhouses  and  grounds  in  which 
neither  districts  nor  communities  can  take  pride.  In  far  too 
many  they  are  public  evidences  of  a  lack  of  interest  in  edu- 
cation. 

But  let  us  go  further.  We  have  agreed  that  the  test  of  a 
public  educational  system  must  be  the  assurances  it  gives 
that  every  child  will  be  properly  schooled.  In  other  words, 

1  Chapt.  2,  sec.  96,  1919. 


304  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

it  must  stand  or  fall  by  how  well  it  reaches  the  child  farthest 
back  or  most  in  need  of  schooling.  The  state  knows  that  all 
parents,  guardians  and  custodians  will  not  send  their  chil- 
dren to  school  regularly.  The  compulsory  attendance  law  is 
evidence  of  this  knowledge.  In  this  law  taken  with  the  law 
regulating  employment  the  state  holds  that  every  child  of 
compulsory  school  age  should  be  in  school,  when  in  session, 
unless  he  is  14  years  of  age,  has  a  sixth  grade  education  and 
is  lawfully  and  regularly  employed.  If  the  child  is  not  regu- 
larly and  lawfully  employed  he  is  required  to  attend  school 
until  he  is  16  years  of  age,  or  has  completed  the  eighth 
grade.1  The  school  census  should  contain  the  name  of  every 
child  between  7  and  16  years  of  age.  The  law  requires 
that  the  teacher  make  and  report  the  enumeration.2 
Rural  school  teachers  ought  to  be  employed  the  year  round, 
and  they  should  live  in  the  school  district,  be  a  vital  part  of 
the  community.  This  would  mean,  of  course,  two  things: 
first,  consolidation  of  schools,  and,  second,  the  erection  of 
homes  for  teachers.  The  school  plant,  school  building,  play- 
grounds and  teacher's  home  with  its  garden  should  be  the 
center  of  culture  for  the  community. 

Compulsory  School  Attendance.  The  enrollment  and  at- 
tendance in  the  public  schools  has  tremendously  increased 
in  the  last  two  or  three  years.  The  best  attendance  record, 
urban  or  rural,  that  I  have  ever  examined  was  that  of  a 
country  school  taught  by  Miss  Gladys  Patch  in  Grant  County, 
West  Virginia,  this  year.  But  in  spite  of  all  this  it  must  be 
said  that,  if  the  public  school  system  with  the  compulsory 
attendance  act  is  to  be  likened  to  a  net,  children  of  compul- 
sory age  are  going  over  it,  under  it  and  around  it  on  both 
ends.  The  net  glides  so  easily  over  the  backs  of  many  that 
they  never  get  inside  the  schoolhouse. 

In  some  form  every  state  of  the  nation  as  well  as  every 
civilized  country  in  the  world  has  accepted  the  principle  of 

1  Chapt.  17,  1919;  Chapt.  41,  1921. 
'Chapt.  2,  sec.  91,  93,  1919. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  305 

compulsory  school  attendance.  Compulsory  attendance  acts 
are  now  a  part  of  the  law.  This  is  not  the  place  for  any 
discussion  of  the  merits  of  the  free  schools  as  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  rural  child.  If  the  public  school  is  not  what  it 
ought  to  be,  make  it  so.  The  rural  boy  or  girl  is  measured  by 
attainments  in  the  courses  now  being  offered ;  and  it  cannot 
be  successfully  denied  that  schooling,  just  ordinary  country 
schooling,  does  prepare  boys  and  girls,  in  some  measure, 
for  adult  life  even  if  it  does  fail  to  give  them  a  complete 
childhood.  Moonlight  and  other  special  schools  have  been 
run  in  more  than  one  of  the  states  within  recent  years  to 
give  a  little  of  the  same  sort  of  schooling  to  adults. 

Here  is  the  big  hole  in  the  net :  the  school  attendance  officer 
is  employed  by  the  district  board  at  so  much  a  day.1  At  no 
school,  although  the  records  in  most  cases  showed  repeated 
absences,  did  we  find  much  evidence  that  the  attendance 
officer  had  been  active.  Some  teachers  could  not  recall  the 
name  of  the  attendance  officer,  others  thought  he  had  quit. 
One  officer  said  he  had  quit  work  because  the  district  board 
had  instructed  him  to  go  "light"  and  would  not  pay  him  for 
his  work.  The  scheme  simply  will  not  work.  Some  new 
plan  must  be  evolved. 

This  is  another  reason  for  the  county  unit  system.  The 
officer  to  enforce  the  school  attendance  law  should  be  a  county 
officer  and  in  addition  to  the  duty  of  enforcing  it  he  should 
be  charged  with  making  and  keeping  a  correct  enumeration 
of  all  children  of  compulsory  age  and  of  granting  all  work 
permits  as  required  by  the  law  regulating  the  employment  of 
children. 

Children  of  compulsory  school  age  may  be  taught  privately 
or  in  a  private  school  and  have  this  counted  for  attendance 
upon  the  public  school,  but  the  law  does  not  require,  as  it 
ought,  that  such  teachers  hold  state  certificates  and  that  the 
courses  of  study  be  the  same  as  those  of  public  schools.  The 
law  should  be  amended  so  as  to  insure  that  children  of  com- 
pulsory school  age  in  private  schools  will  be  taught  by  teach- 

1  Chapt.  2,  sec.   123,  1919* 


306  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

ers  holding  state  certificates.  The  same  sort  of  reports 
should  be  required  as  from  free  school  teachers  and  the  at- 
tendance officer  should  see  that  children  of  compulsory  age 
in  private  schools  attend  regularly. 

PUBLIC  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  FOR  UNUSUAL  CHILDREN 

All  the  institutions  established  by  the  state  for  the  care  and 
education  of  children  in  need  of  special  care  are  under  the 
joint  control  of  the  State  Board  of  Control  and  the  State 
Board  of  Education,  the  latter  having  only  the  right  to  de- 
termine educational  policies.1 

Crippled  Children.  There  is  no  state  institution  for  the 
care  of  crippled  children. 

Feeble-Minded  Children.  The  legislature  of  1921  au- 
thorized the  establishment  of  a  training  school  for  mental 
defectives,  the  feeble-minded,  idiots,  imbeciles  and  morons. 
Preference  in  admission  is  ordered  by  law  to  be  given  to  chil- 
dren and  women  of  child-bearing  age.2  This  institution  has 
not  yet  been  established. 

Deaf  and  Dumb,  and  Blind  Children.  These  are  cared  for 
and  taught  at  the  state  institution  located  at  Romney.  Per- 
sons between  the  ages  of  8  and  25  are  to  be  admitted 
so  long  as  there  is  room  and  they  may  remain  for 
five  years  or  longer,  if  board  and  principal  think  wise.3  Just 
which  board  is  meant  is  not  clear.  It  ought  to  be  the  State 
Board  of  Education  but  it  would  probably  be  interpreted  to 
mean  the  Board  of  Control.  All  persons  are  to  be  admitted 
free  except  that  the  counties  may  be  charged  up  to  $50 
a  year  for  clothing  for  each  pupil  from  that  county.4 

There  is  no  compulsory  education  law  for  deaf  and  dumb, 
or  blind  children.  Their  parents,  guardians  or  custodians 
may  give  them  training  or  not,  as  they  see  fit.  The  tax  as- 

1  Chapt.  2,  sec.   181,  1919. 
3  Chapt.   131,  1921. 
•Chapt.  2,  sec.  153,  4,  19 
*  Chapt.  2,  sec.   154,  1919. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  307 

sessors  are,  however,  required  to  make  a  list  of  all  deaf  and 
dumb  and  blind  persons  for  the  institution.1  This  brings  us 
back  again  to  the  county  school  attendance  officer.  Parents, 
guardians  and  custodians  of  deaf  and  dumb,  and  blind  chil- 
dren ought  to  be  required  to  send  them  to  school,  and,  if 
they  are  able,  they  ought  to  be  required  to  pay  for  their 
keep,  but  not  for  their  teaching,  the  institution  being  a  part 
of  the  free  school  system.  The  compulsory  school  attend- 
ance act  ought  to  be  made  to  apply  to  deaf  and  dumb,  and 
blind  children.  It  should  be  made  a  part  of  the  duty  of  the 
county  school  attendance  officer  to  enforce  this  as  well  as  all 
other  parts  of  the  school  attendance  law. 

The  enumeration  of  all  deaf  and  dumb,  and  blind  children 
should  be  made  by  the  school  enumerator.  In  fact,  the 
school  enumeration  ought  to  show  any  physical  or  mental 
defect  actually  interfering  with  sending  the  child  to  the 
ordinary  school.  The  school  attendance  officer  must  have 
this  information  if  he  is  to  act  intelligently.  It  should  be  no 
part  of  tax  assessors'  business  to  collect  it.  With  all  neces- 
sary information  in  hand,  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  for  the 
school  attendance  officer  to  learn  whether  handicapped  chil- 
dren are  being  given  that  training  which  the  state  has  said,  by 
law,  is  their  right.  If  there  is  failure  or  neglect  on  the  part 
of  parents  or  guardians,  he  should  take  such  action  as  will 
insure  to  all  such  children  their  rights. 

DEPARTMENT   OF   LABOR 

This  subtitle  is  not  exact.  We  use  the  term,  Department 
of  Labor,  because  there  has  been  established  by  law  a  State 
Bureau  of  Labor  under  the  control  and  management  of  a 
State  Commissioner  of  Labor,2  and,  along  with  his  other 
duties,  the  law  has  made  it  the  duty  of  this  officer,  his  as- 
sistants and  inspectors  to  enforce  all  laws  regulating  the 
employment  of  children,  except  employment  in  mines.3  One 

1  Chapt.  a,  sec.  157,  1919- 

*  Chapt.  15,  1889. 

8  Chapt.  17,  sec.  7,  1919. 


308  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

of  the  chief  duties  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  his 
assistants  is  to  inspect  places  where  labor  is  employed.1  This 
necessarily  brings  the  Commissioner  or  his  representative 
into  places  where  children  are  likely  to  be  employed  and  this, 
no  doubt,  is  one  of  the  reasons,  and  a  very  good  one,  why 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws  regulating  the  employment  of 
children  was  placed  under  the  Bureau  of  Labor.2  The 
Bureau  of  Labor  was  given  no  jurisdiction  in  the  matter  of 
employment  of  children  in  mines  because  these  are  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Department  of  Mines.3 

A  third  state  department,  namely,  the  State  Compensation 
Commissioner,  has  jurisdiction  in  labor  matters — the  admin- 
istration of  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Law.*  It  is  also 
of  interest  that  although  the  Bureau  of  Labor  is  distinctly 
excluded  from  having  any  authority  of  inspection  or  other- 
wise in  mines,  yet  it  issues  the  proof  of  age  for  the  employ- 
ment in  mines  of  boys  over  16  years  of  age.  These  three  de- 
partments, labor,  mines  and  compensation,  ought  to  be  com- 
bined into  one  under  the  direction  of  a  Commissioner  selected 
by  a  State  Labor  Board,  the  members  of  which  should  be 
named  by  the  Governor  just  as  members  of  the  State  Boards 
of  Health  and  Education  are  now  named. 

To  aid  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  in  this  work  of  inspect- 
ing factories  and  enforcing  all  labor  laws,  except  those  relat- 
ing to  mines,  the  law  provides  him  with  four  factory  in- 
spectors. A  chief  clerk,  a  statistical  clerk  and  a  stenographer 
are  also  provided,  and  another  of  the  chief  duties  of  the 
Commissioner  is  to  collect  and  report  statistical  information 
on  labor  and  the  industrial  interests  of  the  state.6 

With  these  general  statements  and  with  the  further  state- 
ment that  eight  hours  constitute  a  day's  work  for  all  laborers, 
workmen  and  mechanics  when  work  is  being  done  for  the 
state,6  we  come  at  once  to  the  matter  in  which  we  are  pri- 

1  Chapt.  30,  1919. 

2  Chapt.  17,  1919. 

3  Chapt.  32,  1919. 

*  Chapt.  131,  1919. 

B  Chapt.  30,  sec.  6,  1919;  Chapt.  12,  1915. 

•Chapt.  17,  1899. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  309 

marily  interested,  the  law  regulating  the  employment  of 
children.  This  was  amended  by  the  Legislature  of  1919. 
There  was  but  a  single  Act  to  regulate  the  employment  of 
children  enacted  by  the  Legislature  of  1921 ;  to  prevent  chil- 
dren from  the  State  Industrial  School  or  Home  from  being 
employed  outside  without  work  permits  required  by  the  child 
labor  law.1 

The  general  rule  is  that  no  child  under  14  years  of  age 
may  be  employed  in  any  gainful  occupation,  except  in  agri- 
culture or  domestic  service  and  except  that  boys  of  12  with 
a  lawful  work  permit  may  be  employed  in  mercantile  estab- 
lishments and  business  offices  outside  school  hours.2  Noth- 
ing is  said  of  street  trades  or  of  revoking  the  work  permit 
when  the  work  interferes  with  schooling.  No  distinction  is 
made  between  work  in  agriculture  or  domestic  service  at 
home  or  as  a  hired  hand.  It  is  legal  to  employ  a  lo-y ear-old 
boy  as  a  farm-hand  or  a  lo-year-old  girl  as  a  domestic 
servant,  except  during  public  school  hours.3 

Children  under  16  years  of  age  may  not  be  employed  in 
any  occupation  dangerous  to  the  life  or  limb  or  injurious 
to  the  health  or  morals.  A  commission  composed  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Labor  and  Health  and  the  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools  is  authorized  to  declare  what  trades, 
processes,  and  occupations  are  dangerous  or  injurious,  and 
thereafter  it  is  unlawful  to  employ  any  child  under  16  in 
any  such.4  Inquiry  was  made  at  the  Bureau  of  Labor  as  to 
the  declarations  by  the  commission.  There  was  no  informa- 
tion that  it  had  ever  formally  met  or  made  any  declaration. 

If  this  commission  is  not  going  to  act  and  one  cannot  be 
had  that  will  act,  the  only  remedy  is  to  amend  the  law  so  as 
to  include  occupations  known  to  be  dangerous,  hazardous  or 
injurious.  Information  upon  this  is  so  general  that  it  may 
almost  be  said  to  be  common  knowledge.  In  most  states  one 
is  civilly  liable  per  se  when  a  child  under  16  is  employed  at  a 

1  Chapt.  145,  1921. 

2  Sec.  i. 
•  Ibid. 
*Sec.  2. 


310  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

dangerous  occupation.  This  seems  not  to  be  the  law  in  West 
Virginia.  Children  under  16  do  not  have  discretion.  In 
fact,  certain  occupations  known  to  be  dangerous  and  in  which 
children  under  16  years  of  age  may  not  be  employed  are  now 
named  in  the  law;  work  in  mines,  quarries,  tunnels  or  ex- 
cavations and  a  number  of  others  such  as  rope-walking, 
circus-riding  and  other  exhibitions.1  All  such  occupations 
ought  to  be  enumerated  either  in  the  act  or  by  the  commis- 
sioner. 

No  child  between  the  ages  of  14  and  16  may  be  legally  em- 
ployed at  any  gainful  occupation  unless  the  employer  has 
a  lawful  work  permit.2  Note  that  agriculture  and  domestic 
service  are  not  excepted,  and  it  must  necessarily  follow  that 
any  one  who  hires  a  child  between  the  ages  of  14  and  16 
years  to  do  anything — pull  weeds,  drive  cattle,  work  in  the 
garden,  wash  dishes,  or  mind  the  baby — is  required  by  law  to 
have  a  work  permit  for  the  child. 

Work  permits  are  issued  by  the  superintendent  of  schools 
of  the  city  or  county  or  by  some  person  authorized  by  him  in 
writing.3  There  is  an  indefiniteness  here.  Once  a  person  is 
authorized  in  writing  his  authority  seems  to  run  for  life,  if 
the  person  granting  the  authority  outlives  him.  Of  course, 
this  was  not  intended  and  the  law  should  be  amended ;  first, 
to  limit  the  authority  so  granted  to  not  more  than  one  year 
and,  second,  to  empower  the  granting  officer  to  revoke  his 
grant  at  any  time.  We  have  already  said  that  work  permits 
should  be  granted  by  county  school  attendance  officers.  In 
cities  with  independent  schools,  and  there  should  not  be 
many  of  these  in  the  state,  work  permits  ought  to  be  issued 
by  the  city  school  attendance  officer. 

Before  issuing  a  work  permit  the  officer  is  required  to 
have: 

i.  An  agreement  by  the  employer  to  employ  the  child.4  It 
is  significant  that  the  law  does  not  require  the  agreement  to 


•Sec. 
•Ibid. 
«  Ibid. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  311 

show  the  work  at  which  the  child  is  to  be  employed.  This 
is  necessary  in  order  that  the  medical  inspector  or  public 
health  officer  may  intelligently  grant  or  deny  a  certificate  of 
physical  fitness  for  that  particular  work.1 

2.  One  of  four  proofs  of  age  to  be  required  in  the  order 
here  named:  a,  a  certificate  of  birth  or  transcript  thereof; 
b,  a  baptismal  record  or  attested  transcript  thereof ;  c,  other 
documentary  evidence  more  than  one  year  old ;  d,  a  certificate 
of  a  physician  showing  age  as  determined  by  physical  ex- 
amination.2 

3.  A  certificate  of  schooling  showing  that  the  child  can 
read  and  write  simple  English  sentences  and  has  completed 
the  first  six  grades  of  the  course  of  study  prescribed  by  the 
free  schools,  or  the  equivalent.     This  fixes  the  educational 
qualification  for  a  work  permit,  except  that  the  issuing  officer 
is  empowered  to  grant  vacation  work  permits  without  any 
evidence  of  schooling  and  except  also  that  permits  for  the 
employment  of  boys  12  and  upwards  in  business  offices  and 
mercantile  establishments  outside  of  school  hours  may  be 
granted  without  evidence  of  schooling.3     Just  why  mercan- 
tile establishments  and  business  offices  should  be  given  the 
advantage,  if  it  is  an  advantage,  by  two  years  in  respect  to 
the  employment  of  boys  is  not  clear.     Children  of  14  and 
over  might  well  be  permitted  to  work  after  school  hours 
under  supervision  with  authority  to  cancel  the  work  permit 
when  it  is  shown  that  the  employment  interferes  with  the 
child's  health,  growth,  and  progress  in  school  or  that  there 
are  other  good  reasons  why  he  should  not  be  employed. 

4.  A  certificate  of  physical  fitness  signed  by  a  medical 
school  inspector  or  public  health  officer.4 

The  law  does  not  make  it  clear  that  all  the  papers  herein 
provided  must  be  filed  by  the  issuing  officer,  as  they  should 
be.  No  work  permit  of  any  kind  can  be  issued  without  an 
agreement  to  employ,  lawful  evidence  of  age  and  a  certificate 

'Sec.  3. 
8  Ibid. 

•  Ibid. 

•  Ibid. 


312  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

of  physical  fitness.  Clearly  all  these  and  the  evidence  of 
schooling,  when  required,  should  be  preserved;  but  not  all 
to  be  used  for  a  new  work  permit,  for  it  must  be  understood 
that  for  each  new  employment  a  new  work  permit  is  required 
and  that  for  this  there  must  be  a  new  agreement  to  employ 
and  a  new  certificate  of  physical  fitness.  Work  permits  should 
be  issued  in  triplicate,  the  original  for  the  employer,  and  a 
copy  each  for  the  issuing  officer  and  the  State  Bureau  of 
Labor.  Upon  return  of  the  permit,  it  and  the  copy  held  by 
the  issuing  officer  should  be  marked  "cancelled"  and  then 
the  original  should  be  forwarded  to  the  state  office  to  close 
the  case. 

It  is  unlawful  to  employ  any  child  under  16  years  of  age, 
except  in  agriculture  and  domestic  service,  for  more  than  six 
days  or  48  hours  a  week,  eight  hours  a  day  or  after  the  hour 
of  7  p.  m.  or  before  the  hour  of  6  a.  m.1 

The  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  his  assistants  and  school 
truancy  officers  are  charged  with  the  duty  of  enforcing  this 
law,  except  in  mines.2  The  Bureau  of  Labor  issues  certifi- 
cates of  age  for  boys  employed  in  mines  under  the  federal 
act.  There  is  no  good  reason  for  thus  splitting  up  the  work. 
If  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  is  to  have  supervision  of  part 
of  this  work,  he  should  have  supervision  of  all.  The  county 
school  attendance  officer  should  issue  work  permits  as  we 
have  above  suggested.  There  should  also  be  a  county  officer 
to  enforce  the  child  labor  law  within  his  jurisdiction — the 
county  social  welfare  agent  later  suggested.  More  and  more 
it  is  coming  to  be  understood  that  child  labor  laws  are  a  part 
of  the  general  system  of  child  welfare.  There  has  been 
growing  up  in  different  states  of  the  country  a  disposition 
to  leave  the  enforcement  of  these  laws  to  the  state  labor  de- 
partment exclusively.  This  ought  not  to  be ;  child  labor  laws 
are  just  as  real  as  any  other  laws,  and  should  be  so  consid- 
ered by  local  law  enforcing  agencies.  Local  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  children  should  be  developed  rather  than  curbed. 

1  Sec.  6. 
'Sec.  7. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  313 

There  are  but  four  labor  inspectors  to  look  out  not  only  for 
child  workers  but  for  all  other  labor  problems  except  those 
which  arise  in  mines.1  There  is  no  probability  that  this 
number  will  be  increased,  yet  it  is  obvious  that  four  times 
as  many  inspectors  could  not  possibly  cover,  well,  the  entire 
state.  In  fact,  the  State  Department  of  Labor  ought  not  to 
undertake  to  cover  the  state  except  in  a  supervisory  manner. 
County  and  city  officers  should  be  the  eyes  of  the  state. 
There  is  or  should  be  a  record  of  every  child  in  any  county 
or  city,  and  the  attendance  officer  should  know  whether  he 
is  at  school,  at  work,  or  just  fooling  around.  If  he  does  his 
duty,  he  will  learn  whether  the  child  is  at  work  and  having 
learned  that  he  is  at  work  it  will  be  both  natural  and  easy  for 
him  to  know  whether  the  employment  is  legal,  and  if  found 
to  be  illegal,  or  if  there  is  doubt,  to  turn  the  matter  over  to 
the  proper  county  officer — the  county  social  agent. 

There  is  no  great  need  of  increasing  the  number  of  state 
inspectors,  so  far  as  child  labor  goes ;  but  there  is  great  need 
that  they  be  understood  to  be  supervisors  and  helpers  of  local 
officers.  Each  school  attendance  officer  should  report  to  the 
Bureau  of  Labor  all  work  permits  issued,  denied  and  can- 
celled and  all  violations.  The  local  officer  and  the  state  de- 
partment should  join  in  enforcing  the  law  as  occasions  de- 
mand. Child  labor  laws  are  not  enforced  largely  because  of 
a  lack  of  local  interest  and  because  of  the  further  fact  that 
a  state  inspector  has  only  two  eyes  and  can  be  in  but  one  place 
at  any  given  time.  This  suggests  that  in  strictly  rural  and 
not  densely  populated  counties  it  might  be  possible  to  have 
the  school  attendance  officer  enforce  the  laws  regulating  the 
employment  of  children.  This  is  well  worth  considering;  but 
attention  is  here  called  to  the  fact  that  the  enforcement  of 
the  child  labor  law  belongs  more  logically  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  combination  child  welfare  and  probation  officer. 
In  smaller  counties  it  may  be  possible  to  have  one  officer 
serve  in  the  three  capacities. 

The  study  of  the  "Enforcement  of  Child  Labor  Laws  in 

1  Chapt.  30,  1919. 


314  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

West  Virginia"  by  Ethel  Hanks  Van  Buskirk,  in  The 
American  Child  for  August,  1921,  is  full  of  evidence  that 
there  is  no  well  established  system  of  granting  work  permits 
or  of  enforcing  the  child  labor  law.  The  irregularities  found 
by  her  are  so  many  that  the  readers  of  her  report  are  made 
to  wonder  whether  some  of  those  who  enforce  the  law  or 
employ  children  ever  took  time  to  read  the  law.  This  comes 
from  neither  willful  ignorance  nor  innate  depravity,  but  from 
the  fact  that  there  has  been  no  supervision.  This  should  be 
one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  Commissioners  and  Bureau 
of  Labor. 

The  legislature  of  1921  made  provision  for  the  establish- 
ment of  continuation  or  part-time  schools  in  communities 
where  50  or  more  children  are  at  work  under  work  per- 
mits.1 This  adds  a  new  duty  to  the  officers  charged  with  the 
enforcement  of  the  compulsory  school  attendance  and  child 
labor  laws  in  that  they  will  have  to  follow  up  all  these  chil- 
dren in  order  to  see  that  they  are  attending  part-time  schools. 
These  schools  should  not  and,  in  justice,  cannot  be  limited  to 
communities  with  50  working  children.  The  better  stand- 
ards of  the  country  are  beginning  to  demand  that  children  up 
to  the  age  of  18  continue  in  part-time  schools,  until  they 
have  completed  at  least  the  first  eight  years  of  the  public 
school  course. 

In  cities,  newsboys  and  other  street  traders  are  frequently 
seen.  The  law  makes  no  provision  for  any  system  of  badges 
and,  seeing  that  these  children  are  mostly  independent  trad- 
ers, it  follows  that  they  come  under  no  provision  of  the 
present  child  labor  law.  This  ought  not  to  be.  It  should  be 
amended  so  as  to  authorize  and  require  badges  for  all  street 
trading  by  children  under  16  years  of  age. 

Boys  and  girls  of  more  than  16  years  of  age  may  be  em- 
ployed at  any  sort  of  night  work,  even  delivering  night  mes- 
sages. This  is  below  standard  and  endangers  their  future. 

With  a  few  changes  the  child  labor  law  could  be  made  ex- 
cellent. Its  chief  weakness  lies  in  the  method  of  enforce- 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  315 

ment  and  this  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  other 
phases  of  county  and  city  child  welfare  problems.  It  is  folly 
to  enact  laws  unless  machinery  for  their  enforcement  is  pro- 
vided. The  method  and  manner  of  enforcing  both  the  school 
attendance  and  child  labor  laws  is  such  as  gradually  to  build 
up  in  the  minds  of  the  people  a  sort  of  contempt  for  law. 
The  practice  in  respect  to  both  laws  diverges  too  widely  and 
too  regularly  from  the  simple  letter. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  CHILD  WELFARE 

By  Department  of  Child  Welfare  is  meant  a  department  of 
state  charged  with  the  duty  of  looking  after  handicapped 
children  and  especially  dependent,  neglected  and  delinquent 
children.  There  is  no  sue  hstate  department  in  West  Vir- 
ginia. There  is  a  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  but 
it  undertakes  to  care  for  one  class  of  children  only,  normal, 
neglected  or  dependent  children  who  may  be  placed  in 
homes.  It  does  have  a  sort  of  supervisory  function  in  re- 
spect of  children  paroled  from  state  institutions,  and  it  has 
the  power  of  standardizing  private  hospitals,  maternity 
homes  and  other  institutions  or  associations  receiving  or 
caring  for  children,  but  its  primary  duty  is  to  find  homes 
for  dependent  children.  The  State  Board  of  Children's 
Guardians  has  nothing  to  do  with  state  institutions  estab- 
lished for  the  care  of  children. 

The  Division  of  Public  Health  Nursing  and  Child  Wel- 
fare.of  the  State  Department  of  Health  is  not  and  was  never 
meant  to  be  a  State  Department  of  Child  Welfare,  Charities 
or  whatever  one  may  wish  to  call  that  department  of  state 
which  one  usually  finds  charged  with  the  duty  of  exercising 
a  watchful  care  over  those  unable  to  care  for  themselves. 
It  is  a  division  of  the  Department  of  Health  and  therefore 
concerns  itself  primarily  with  health  matters. 

Except  as  to  certain  educational  control  exercised  by  the 
State  Board  of  Education,  every  child,  whether  mentally 
defective,  an  orphan,  neglected,  dependent,  or  delinquent, 


316  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

committed  or  placed  in  any  state  institution,  conies  immedi- 
ately under  the  Board  of  Control.  We  have,  therefore,  the 
financial  control  of  state  child-caring  institutions  and  the 
fatherly  oversight  all  lodged,  by  law,  in  the  same  body,  the 
Board  of  Control.  In  other  words,  we  have  nothing  of  the 
"dual"  system ;  administration  and  supervision  of  state  insti- 
tutions are  united  in  the  one  board,  but  with  that  board 
undertaking  to  do  nothing  for  any  child  except  such  as  have 
entered  one  of  the  state  institutions.  County  and  municipal 
child-caring  institutions  are  without  state  supervision. 

Let  us  go  a  little  further  a-field  in  our  search  for  legal 
child-caring  agencies.  Naturally  we  would  look  first  to  the 
Juvenile  Courts  and  this  brings  us  at  once  to  two  acts  which 
contain  most  of  the  handicapped-child  law  except  that  re- 
lating to  mentally  deficient  children  and  except  also  the 
mother's  pension  act. 

There  is  strictly  speaking  no  state  juvenile  court  law. 
Circuit  and  other  courts  including  some  criminal  courts  are 
authorized  to  hear  cases  of  delinquent  children  in  a  special 
manner  and  such  courts  are  required  to  keep  a  juvenile 
record  and  are  called  for  convenience,  "Juvenile  Courts."  * 
This  act  authorizes  these  so-called  juvenile  courts  to  handle 
only  delinquent  children; 2  but  Chapter  134,  1921,  gives  the 
juvenile  court  along  with  other  courts  jurisdiction  over 
dependent  and  neglected  children. 

Let  us  review,  first,  Chapter  in,  1919: 

All  children  under  21  years  of  age  who  come  under  its 
provisions  are  held  for  the  purposes  of  the  act  to  be  wards 
of  the  state.  A  delinquent  child  is  any  child  under  18  who 
violates  any  law  of  the  state  or  does  almost  anything  which 
shows  that  he  is  without  or  beyond  parental  control.8  This 
is  good. 

Circuit  Courts  have  original  jurisdiction  of  all  children 
coming  within  the  provisions  of  the  act  except  that  where  a 
court  of  common  pleas  or  intermediary  court  with  chancery 

1Chapt.  in,  sec.  j,  1919. 
•Sec.  i.  13. 
•Sec.   i 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  317 

jurisdiction  has  been  created  it  has  exclusive  jurisdiction 
and  except  also  that  where  there  is  a  criminal  court  and  no 
court  of  chancery  jurisdiction,  except  the  Circuit  Court, 
then  the  criminal  court  has  exclusive  jurisdiction.  The 
hearings  may  be  in  chambers  but  a  jury  trial  may  be  had 
on  demand.1 

This  is  not  good.  First,  the  juvenile  court  should  be 
a  definite  court,  and  not  a  wandering  sort  of  thing.  If  the 
Circuit  Court  is  to  sit  as  a  juvenile  court,  then  no  other 
court  should  ever  undertake  to  hear  juvenile  cases.  Second, 
some  criminal  courts  are  given  jurisdiction  of  juvenile  cases, 
on  the  law  side.  It  is  now  generally  accepted  that  a  juvenile 
court  should  sit  always  as  a  court  of  chancery.  Third,  it  is 
a  mistake  to  have  trials  by  jury  in  juvenile  courts.  The 
judge  should  find  the  facts  and  make  such  orders  as  the 
best  interests  of  the  child  demand. 

Full  authority  is  given  to  whatever  court  is  sitting  law- 
fully as  a  juvenile  court,  after  service  of  process  upon  the 
parent  or  guardian  or  even  without  this,  to  take  charge  of 
any  child  who  appears  to  be  without  proper  care  and  there- 
after to  make  such  orders  as  to  the  court  seems  wise.2  This 
power  is,  of  course,  limited  by  the  right  to  trial  by  jury  when 
demanded.* 

Any  Circuit  or  other  court,  sitting  as  a  juvenile  court,  has 
authority  to  appoint  any  number  of  probation  officers  in  any 
county  to  serve  without  compensation.  The  law  declares 
it  to  be  the  duty  of  any  such  probation  officer  to  make  in- 
vestigations, to  be  present  at  hearings,  to  assist  the  judge 
and  to  take  charge  of  the  child.  The  law  provides  for  one 
paid  probation  officer  in  counties  of  more  than  15,000  in- 
habitants, and  for  two  paid  officers  in  counties  of  more  than 
40,000.  All  these  are  appointed  directly  by  the  judge.  In 
counties  with  a  population  of  less  than  15,000  the  right  of 
the  judge  to  appoint  a  paid  probation  officer  is  limited  by  the 
opinions  of  the  county  superintendent  of  schools  and  a 

» Sec.  2. 
3  Sec.  3,  4. 
8  Sec.  1 


318  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

majority  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners  as  to  need. 
They  have  the  right  and  are  required  to  pass  upon  the 
competency  of  any  probation  officer  suggested  by  the  judge. 
In  counties  of  more  than  40,000  inhabitants,  upon  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  county  superintendent  of  schools  and  the 
board  of  county  commissioners,  two  additional  paid  proba- 
tion officers  may  be  appointed.1 

This  section  is  about  as  unusual  as  one  meets  in  the  law 
books.  In  counties  with  large  population  and  therefore  with 
more  work  for  probation  officers,  the  judge  is  given  a  free 
hand  in  appointment  while  in  counties  of  small  population 
he  is  forced  not  only  to  get  consent  of  county  officials  to 
appoint  a  paid  officer  for  his  own  court,  but  must  have  his 
appointee  approved  by  them.  Yet  it  is  not  so  strange  after 
all.  When  this  part  of  the  law  was  written  (this  part  of  the 
act  of  1919  is  brought  forward  from  a  former  act),  the 
possibilities  of  effective  probation  service  and  even  of  the 
juvenile  courts  were  not  appreciated.  It  was  then  strongly 
believed  that  the  whole  thing  was  for  towns,  with  the  result 
that  the  legislature  left  the  matter  of  having  paid  probation 
officers  in  counties  of  small  population  to  the  discretion  of 
certain  county  officials.  This,  of  course,  leaves  the  matter 
of  having  or  not  having  a  paid  probation  officer  entirely  to 
them.  Unfortunately,  the  law  makes  no  provision  for  hav- 
ing any  other  county  officer  perform  the  duties  of  probation 
officer,  and  so  we  find  counties  with  juvenile  courts  but 
without  probation  service.  Still  more  unfortunately,  in 
some  counties  we  find  the  county  officers  not  at  all  sympa- 
thetic with  the  juvenile  court  idea. 

In  one  county  the  clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court  who  is,  by 
reason  of  his  office,  clerk  of  the  juvenile  court,  was  asked 
whether  he  had  many  juvenile  cases. 

"Not  many,"  was  his  reply,  "and  I  hope  we'll  never  have 
another  one." 

"Why?" 

"They  are  a  regular  damned  nuisance." 

1  Sec.  6. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  319 

The  general  rule  is  that  clerks  and  other  officers  get  no  fees 
out  of  juvenile  cases,  except  when  the  court  orders  the  child 
to  be  proceeded  against  as  a  criminal.1  This  may  explain 
the  state  of  mind  of  the  clerk.  At  any  rate,  there  was  no  very 
strong  guarantee  of  the  best  sort  of  treatment  for  children. 

The  court  has  a  very  wide  discretion  in  determining  what 
is  best  to  be  done  for  any  child  brought  into  court  and  ad- 
judged to  be  delinquent : 

1.  He  may  remand  the  child  to  the  criminal  court  for 
trial.2 

2.  He  may  order  the  child  to  be  sent  to  a  hospital  for 
treatment,  provided  that  no  charge  is  made  against  pub- 
lic funds.3     This,  of  course,  is  all  wrong.     If  the  child 
needs  treatment  and  has  no  parent  or  estate  to  pay  for 
it  the  county  ought  to  pay. 

3.  He  may  leave  the  child  in  its  own  home  under  the 
supervision  of  a  probation  officer.*    Of  course,  if  there 
is  no  probation  officer,  there  could  be  no  supervision. 

4.  He  may  appoint  a  guardian  and  order  him  to  leave 
the  child  in  his  (the  child's)  home,  to  take  it  into  his 
(the  guardian's)  home  or  to  place  the  child  in  a  suitable 
family  home,  provided  no  charge  is  made  against  public 
funds.8 

5.  He  may  commit  the  child  to  a  state,  county  or 
municipal  institution  or  a  private  institution  or  asso- 
ciation accredited  by  the   State   Board  of   Children's 
Guardians.     The  court  may  at  any  time  recall  a  child 
that  has  been  committed  to  the  care  of  a  guardian  or  to 
any  institution  or  association,  and  return  it  to  its  own 
home.    The  executive  officer  of  the  institution  or  asso- 
ciation to  which  the  child  is  committed  becomes  by  law 
its  guardian.6    The  guardianship  of  a  delinquent  child, 
however  arising,  lasts  until  21  unless  sooner  terminated 
by  the  court.7     All  guardians,  private  or  institutional, 

'Sec.  17,  9,  IJ. 
•Sec.  9. 
'Sec.  16. 
•Sec.  7. 

•  Ibid. 

•  Ibid. 

7  Sec.  8,  ii. 


320  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

may  be  required  to  report  as  often  as  the  court  desires 
and  the  court  may  at  any  time  remove  the  child  from 
the  care  of  the  guardian  or  institution.1 

Children  under  18  years  of  age  belong  under  the  original 
jurisdiction  of  those  courts  which  sit  as  juvenile  courts ;  but 
police-magistrates  and  justices  of  the  peace  have  authority 
to  hold  hearings  and  discharge  because  there  is  no  evidence 
of  delinquency.2  This  is  not  the  best  way.  Police  courts 
and  courts  of  justices  of  the  peace  are  necessarily  criminal 
courts.  A  hearing  and  discharge  by  a  court  may  be  the  very 
worst  thing  for  a  child.  Section  2  of  the  act  states  clearly 
that  those  courts  authorized  to  sit  as  juvenile  courts  are  to 
have  original  jurisdiction.3  That  jurisdiction  ought  to  be 
exclusive.  Police-magistrates  and  justices  of  the  peace 
ought  not  to  hear  children's  cases. 

State  institutions  which  receive  juvenile  delinquents  are 
required  by  law  to  examine  homes  to  which  children  are 
paroled.*  This  has,  evidently,  not  worked  very  successfully, 
for  the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  is  now  em- 
powered to  make  these  investigations.5 

When  a  child  is  taken  from  his  parent  or  guardian  and 
committed  to  some  prison  or  institution  the  court  may  order 
such  parent  or  guardian  to  pay  for  the  support,  maintenance 
and  education  of  the  child  and  may  enforce  the  order  by 
seizing  property,  part  of  his  wages  or  by  contempt  proceed- 
ings.6 The  law  goes  further  back  and  makes  it  criminal  for 
any  one  to  contribute  to  the  delinquency  of  a  child.7  The 
juvenile  court  hears  such  cases  which,  of  course,  includes  the 
right  of  trial  by  jury.  Any  sort  of  criminal  trial  of  an  adult 
for  any  offense  against  a  child  should  be  in  courts  strictly 
criminal  and  not  in  juvenile  courts. 

Counties  of  more  than  40,000  inhabitants  are  required, 

»Sec.  12. 

1  Sec.  13. 

•Sec.  2. 

*Sec.  15- 

•Chapt.    134,  sec.    10,    1921. 

•  Sec.  20. 

1  Sec.  20-36. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  321 

and  other  counties  are  authorized  to  build  detention  homes.1 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  we  found  children  held  in  jail,  proper 
probation  service  rather  than  the  building  of  detention  homes 
needs  most  to  be  stressed. 

This  whole  act  is  to  be  interpreted  and  construed  in  ac- 
cordance with  two  principles.  First,  it  must  be  liberally  con- 
strued in  favor  of  the  state  to  the  end  that  the  child  may  be 
protected  from  himself  as  well  as  from  all  other  persons  ;2 
and,  second,  in  construing  the  act,  the  court  is  bound  by  the 
fact  that  the  legislature  has  declared  that  "no  child  shall  be 
taken  or  kept  from  its  home  or  parents  or  guardian  any 
longer  than  is  necessary  to  preserve  the  welfare  of  the  child 
and  the  interests  of  the  state."  *  The  first  is  in  accord  with 
oft-repeated  declarations  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  both  are 
now  approved  by  the  better  thought  of  the  country.  We  no 
longer  glorify  institutions  for  children,  but  avoid,  if  possible, 
the  breaking  up  of  families. 

This  brings  us  to  a  consideration  of  state  institutions  for 
delinquent  children.  There  are  two  in  active  operation:  the 
Industrial  School  for  Boys,  and  the  Industrial  Home  for 
Girls.  These  were  originally  for  both  white  and  colored 
children,  but  the  legislature  of  1921  made  provision  for 
similar  institutions  for  colored  boys  and  girls.  These,  when 
established,  will  be  governed  by  the  same  law  and  rules  as 
the  two  now  in  existence.4 

The  Industrial  School  for  Boys  is  managed  by  the 
State  Board  of  Control.  It  is  for  boys  between  the  ages  of 
10  and  18  years  of  age  and  this  may  include  boys  convicted 
of  crimes  in  courts  or  even  convicts  transferred  by  the 
Governor  from  the  penitentiary.5 

Boys  between  the  ages  of  10  and  18  years  may  be  com- 
mitted to  the  institution: 

»Sec.  37-4*. 

'Sec.  35. 

•Sec.  8. 

*Chapts.    154,    155,    i93». 

5  Sec.    159,    160,    161,    167. 


322  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

1.  By  a  justice  of  the  peace  when  the  person  having 
control  of  the  child  declares  under  oath  that  he  is  in- 
corrigible and  vicious  and  beyond  control.1 

2.  By  any  justice  of  the  peace,  when  any  person, 
under  oath,  shows  that  the  child  is  a  vagrant,  incorrigi- 
ble, vicious  and  beyond  the  control  of  the  person  having 
custody  of  him.2 

3.  By  the  several  courts  of  the  state.    Whenever  any 
boy  under  18  years  of  age  is  convicted  of  any  crime 
punishable  by  imprisonment  the  judge  may,  in  his  dis- 
cretion, commit  him  to  the  Industrial  School  instead  of 
sentencing  him  to  jail  or  the  penintentiary.3 

This  part  of  the  law  is  confused.  Circuit  Courts  sit- 
ting as  juvenile  courts  are  supposed  to  have  exclusive  and 
certainly  original  jurisdiction  over  delinquent  children,  but 
here  we  have  authority  for  justices  of  the  peace  to  handle 
delinquent  boys  and  to  commit  them  to  a  state  institution. 
The  law  should  be  amended  so  that  no  justice  of  the  peace 
or  judge  of  any  except  a  juvenile  court  shall  have  authority 
to  commit  boys  to  this  school.  As  it  is,  a  boy  may  be  re- 
manded to  the  criminal  court  for  trial  and  then  after  trial 
committed  to  this  school  which  should  be  for  boys  who  are, 
at  most,  only  wayward.  Why  try  a  boy  in  a  criminal  court 
if  he  is  going  to  be  sent  to  the  school  to  which  the  juvenile 
judge  probably  would  have  sent  him?  This  is  a  school; 
convicts  ought  not  to  be  transferred  to  it.  If  a  boy  under 
18  years  of  age  is  to  be  released  from  the  penitentiary  it 
would  be  much  better  to  parole  him  than  to  send  him  to  this 
school  for  young  boys. 

The  State  Board  of  Control  is  empowered  to  grant,  upon 
recommendation  of  the  superintendent,  paroles  in  accordance 
with  such  rules  as  they  may  prescribe.4 

The  law  in  respect  to  the  Industrial  Home  for  Girls  is 

*Sec.  160. 

'Sec.  160. 

*  Sec.  160,  161. 

*Sec.  171. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  323 

very  similar  to  that  regulating  the  School  for  Boys.  Girls 
between  12  and  18  years  of  age  and  of  a  sound  mind  may  be 
committed  by  justices  of  the  peace,  criminal,  circuit,  inter- 
mediate, juvenile,  or  mayor's  court,  to  be  held  until  they  are 
21  unless  sooner  discharged.  Any  girl  unfit  for  the  Home 
may  be  returned  to  the  court  committing  her.1  The  same 
right  of  trial  by  jury  is  found.2  All  these  different  features 
being  common  to  both  these  institutions,  what  has  been  said 
in  respect  to  the  law  governing  the  Boys'  School  holds  true 
here. 

There  is  one  feature  of  the  law  governing  the  Industrial 
Home  for  Girls  not  found  in  that  governing  the  Industrial 
School  for  Boys — the  right  to  bind  a  girl  out  until  she  is  21 
years  of  age.8  This  is  entirely  different  from  the  right  to 
parole  boys  from  the  Industrial  School.  It  has  already  been 
said  that  all  laws  or  parts  of  laws  granting  authority  to  ap- 
prentice children  should  be  repealed  and  this  should  include 
this  part  of  the  law. 

For  the  law  in  respect  to  dependent  and  neglected  chil- 
dren, we  turn,  second,  to  Chapter  134,  1921. 

The  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  has  three  mem- 
bers, one  a  woman.  One  member  is  appointed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor with  consent  of  the  Senate  every  other  year  and  each 
holds  for  a  term  of  six  years.4  This  is  an  excellent  form  of 
state  board.  The  law  wisely  leaves  the  conduct  of  its  busi- 
ness largely  in  its  own  hands  in  that  it  is  authorized  to  make 
rules  and  regulations  and  to  appoint  officers  and  agents,  gen- 
eral and  district.5 

The  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  is  authorized  to 
receive  into  its  custody  and  control  two  classes,  dependent 
and  neglected  children.  By  "dependent"  is  meant  any  boy 
under  16  or  girl  under  18  years  of  age  "who  is  dependent 
upon  public  charity,  or  is  destitute,  homeless  or  abandoned." 

1  Sec.  173,  174,  1919;  Chapt.  134,  19*1. 

8  Sec.  175;  Chapt   134,  1921. 

•Sec.  177,  1919;  Chapt.  134,  1921. 

•Sec.  i. 

•Sec.  3. 


324  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

By  "neglected  child"  is  meant  any  boy  under  16  or  girl  under 
1 8  who  is  without  proper  guardianship,  begs  or  receives 
alms,  or  lives  in  a  home  of  ill-fame  or  with  improper  per- 
sons, or  whose  home  or  environment  is  not  proper  and  such 
as  to  warrant  the  state's  assuming  guardianship.1 

The  board  or  any  of  its  agents  or  other  person  may  begin 
an  action  in  a  Circuit  Court,  common  pleas,  criminal,  inter- 
mediate or  juvenile  court  to  have  any  child,  alleged  to  be 
dependent  or  neglected,  taken  from  its  custodian  and  com- 
mitted to  the  board  and  the  judge  of  the  court  may  after 
proper  notice  and  hearing  commit  the  child  to  it.  The 
judges  of  the  same  courts  may  when  petitioned  by  the 
board,  also  order  that  a  "poor  but  otherwise  worthy  parent 
or  guardian"  of  a  child  be  paid  out  of  the  public  funds  of 
the  county,  such  sums  as  are  necessary  to  maintain  said 
parent  and  child  or  children.2 

This  last  is  an  excellent  feature  of  the  law  because  it  opens 
the  door  for  adequate  aid  for  children  in  need,  in  that  it  em- 
powers judges  to  make  orders  for  the  maintenance  of  chil- 
dren in  their  own  homes.  If  the  benefits  were  not  limited  to 
children  of  worthy  parents,  and  if  the  law  appointed  the  pro- 
posed county  boards  of  children's  guardians  to  administer 
them  it  would,  if  properly  carried  out,  do  away  with  any 
need  for  a  mother's  pension  act.  Unfortunately,  judges  of 
common  pleas,  criminal  and  intermediary  courts  are  given 
jurisdiction  just  as  in  cases  of  delinquent  children.  There 
is  now  a  very  strong  sentiment  for  handling  all  cases  of 
dependency  outside  of  any  court.  Here  jurisdiction  is  given 
to  several  courts,  some  of  them  criminal.  The  better  thought 
of  the  country  is  against  this. 

When  a  boy  under  16  or  a  girl  under  18  is  found  to  be 
dependent  or  neglected  the  judge  may  in  his  discretion: 


i.   Allow  the  child  to  remain  in  its  home  under  the 
visitation  of  the  board; 


•/Wrf. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  325 

2.  If  necessary  the  judge  may  take  the  child  from  the 
parent  and  appoint  a  guardian ; 

3.  Or,  he  may  commit  the  child  to  a  state  institution, 
industrial  school,  children's  home,  or  an  accredited  asso- 
ciation which  cares  for  or  finds  homes  for  children. 
When  the  child  is  committed  to  an  institution  or  associa- 
tion the  executive  officer  becomes  guardian.    All  chil- 
dren taken  and  committed  under  this  law  are  held  to 
be  wards  of  the  state  until  21  unless  restored  to  their 
parents  by  order  of  the  court  or  adopted.1     This,  of 
course,  includes  commitment  to  the  Board  of  Children's 
Guardians.    Children  committed   to   it  remain   in   its 
custody  until  placed  or  ordered  into  other  care  and 
custody.2 

It  must  be  noticed  that  while  the  juvenile  along  with 
other  courts  is  given  jurisdiction  no  probation  service, 
except  that  of  the  ten  district  agents,  is  provided  for. 
In  other  words,  cases  of  neglect  or  dependency,  no  mat- 
ter how  pressing,  must  wait  until  the  district  agent  gets 
there  and  may  then  be  heard  by  a  court  other  than  the 
juvenile  court. 

The  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  is  empowered  to 
place  children  in  orphan  asylums,  children's  homes  or  suit- 
able private  homes  observing,  as  far  as  practicable,  religion 
of  parents.*  In  addition  to  this  it  is  required  upon  request 
to  investigate  children  paroled  from  state  institutions  and 
homes  to  which  they  have  been  or  are  about  to  be  sent,  and 
also  upon  request  deaf  and  dumb  and  crippled  children,  and 
to  procure  medical  and  surgical  examinations  at  the  expense 
of  the  county.4  This  last  is  rather  surprising  as  it  gives  the 
board  the  right  to  create  a  debt  against  county  funds  without 
judicial  order.  It  would  be  an  excellent  feature  if  the  right 
to  expend  public  funds  were  based  upon  orders  of  the  juve- 
nile court. 

Another  function  of  the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guar- 

»  Sec.  5,  6,  4. 
•Sec.  7. 
•Sec.  9,  IS- 
•Sec.  10. 


326  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

dians  is  that  of  visiting,  inspecting,  supervising  and  approv- 
ing annually,  by  certificate,  every  hospital,  maternity  home, 
or  association  which  receives,  cares  for  or  finds  homes  for 
children.  No  association  for  the  training,  caring  for  or 
placing  of  children  may  be  incorporated  or  have  its  charter 
amended  without  the  approval  of  the  board.1  This  is  good 
law. 

The  court  may  in  proper  cases  of  dependent  or  neglected 
children  appoint  a  guardian  and  authorize  him  to  consent  to 
the  adoption  of  the  child.2  When  a  child  is  found  to  be  de- 
pendent or  neglected  and  the  parent  is  able  to  contribute  to 
its  support  the  court  may  order  him  to  pay  a  reasonable  sum 
to  the  society,  institution,  association  or  prison  for  this  pur- 
pose and  this  order  may  be  enforced  by  a  seizure  of  property 
or  wage  and  by  contempt  proceeding.3 

As  in  the  act  relating  to  delinquent  children  the  law  here 
again  declares  that  it  is  to  be  liberally  construed  to  the  end 
that  parents  may  be  enabled  and  compelled  to  care  for  their 
children  and  that  children  may  be  educated  and  trained 
morally,  intellectually  and  physically.* 

The  legislature  appropriated  $36,500  a  year  for  the  years 
1921-2  and  1922-3  for  the  support  of  the  ten  district  agents 
and  all  other  officers  and  employees  and  other  expenses  of 
the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians.5  Five  of  the  ten 
district  agents  are  required  by  law  to  be  women.6 

Mothers'  Pensions.  There  is  another  chapter  of  the  law 
which  ought  to  provide  some  aid  for  some  children,  the  so- 
called  mother's  pension  act.7  This  act  was,  probably,  enacted 
as  a  piece  of  advice  from  the  legislature  to  county  courts  as 
much  as  for  any  other  purpose ;  for  county  courts  are  in  no 
way  bound  to  act  upon  it.  However  it  does  two  things :  first, 
it  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  state  as  the  over- father  knows 

'Sec.   12. 

3  Sec.   13. 

aSec.   17. 

*  Sec.  4. 

B  Chapt.    i,  Extraordinary   Session    1921,  Chapt.    134,    1921. 

9  Chapt.  134,  sec.  3,  1921. 

7  B.  C.  C.  46  B. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  327 

that  often  a  mother  is  actually  unable  to  care  for  her  chil- 
dren, and,  second,  that  support  for  children  left  without  the 
support  of  a  father  is  a  proper  legal  charge  against  the  public 
funds  of  a  county.  The  best  part  of  this  act  is  that  it  opened 
the  door  for  aid  out  of  public  funds  for  all  children  in  need. 
No,  it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  that  it  pushed  the  door  a 
little  farther  open,  for  the  old  poor-law,  under  which  county 
courts  ordered  the  paying  out  of  pittances  by  the  overseers 
of  the  poor  for  the  relief  of  children  as  well  as  adults,  was 
the  beginning. 

Following  the  old  poor-law  the  whole  administration  of 
this  law  is  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  county  court.  Applica- 
tion may  be  made  to  this  court  for  relief  for  any  mother 
with  at  least  two  children  under  13  years  of  age,  whose 
husband  is  dead,  permanently  incapacitated  for  work,  is  con- 
fined in  a  state  institution  or  has  abandoned  his  wife.1  Upon 
application  the  county  court  orders  one  of  its  members  to 
visit  the  family  and  report  in  writing;2  and  thereupon  after 
a  verified  statement  of  facts  is  filed  may  issue  a  summons 
for  the  mother  and  children  to  be  brought  into  court.3  For- 
tunately, the  county  court  has  authority  to  waive  this  part 
of  the  law.4  A  careful  and  sympathetic  investigation  of  the 
case  should  be  made  by  a  county  social  agent.  A  member 
of  a  county  court  is,  as  a  rule,  not  qualified  and  will  not  take 
the  time  to  get  the  facts.  Good  women  will  let  their  children 
suffer  and  suffer  themselves  before  they  will  come  before  a 
county  court  to  ask  for  help.  Who  can  blame  them  ? 

Where  there  is  but  one  child  under  13  years  of  age  no 
allowance  may  be  made.  Thus  the  law  urges  women  to  keep 
on  hand  at  least  two  children  under  13  years  of  age,  if  they 
would  obtain  a  pension.  If  there  is  more  than  one  under  13, 
the  court  may  allow  up  to  $15  a  month  for  the  first  child  and 
$5  a  month  for  each  additional  child  under  13  up  to  $25  a 
month  in  all.  Thus  again  the  law,  in  a  way,  says  that  in  well- 

1  B.  c.  c.  46  B,  s.  i. 
»B.  c.  c.  46  B,  s.  3. 

•  B.  C.  C.  46  B,  s.  5. 
•B.  C.  C.  46  B.  s.  8. 


328  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

regulated  families  there  should  never  be  more  than  three  chil- 
dren under  13  years  of  age.  Then,  too,  a  child  is  required  by 
law  to  attend  school  up  to  the  age  of  14.  If  he  has  not  com- 
pleted the  course  of  study  prescribed  for  the  free  schools,  he  is 
required  to  attend  even  longer,  and  up  to  his  sixteenth  year 
unless  he  is  legally  and  regularly  employed  or  has  completed 
the  first  eight  years  of  the  free  school  course.  The  mother's 
pension  law  will  not  permit  an  allowance  for  children  over 
13.  A  child  that  goes  to  school  has  to  have  shelter,  clothes 
to  wear  and  food  to  eat.  Also,  the  legislature  has  declared 
the  policy  of  keeping  parent  and  child  together,  if  practicable. 
If  there  is  to  be  a  mother's  pension  law,  it  ought  certainly 
to  fit  the  compulsory  school  attendance  and  child  labor  laws, 
and  allowances  should  be  made  until  the  child  is  eligible  for 
a  regular  work  permit. 

The  conditions  upon  which  grants  may  be  made  are: 
that  children  live  with  the  mother ;  that  it  is  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  children  for  them  to  live  with  her ;  that  with- 
out the  relief  the  mother  would  be  compelled  to  stay 
away  from  home,  but  with  it  will  be  able  to  stay  at  home, 
except  that  she  may  work  out  a  fixed  number  of  days ; 
that  the  mother  is  a  proper  person,  physically,  mentally 
and  morally  to  have  the  care  of  her  children;  that  the 
relief  is  necessary  to  save  the  children  from  neglect; 
that  the  mother  has  no  real  estate  or  personal  property, 
except  household  goods;  that  she  is  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  and  has  been  for  five  years  a  resident 
of  the  state  and  county ;  that  no  relative  of  the  children 
contributes  an  equal  amount  to  their  support;  that  the 
mother  permits  no  man  other  than  a  relative  to  live  in 
the  house,  and  that  children  of  school  age  attend  school.1 

In  the  main,  the  principles  above  enumerated  are  good. 
Any  good  investigator  would  use  almost  all  of  them  in 
recommending  relief  for  a  mother  and  her  children.  They 
should  not  appear  in  the  law  but  should  be  used  for  the 
guidance  of  the  investigating  officer — the  county  social  agent 

1  B.  c.  c.  46  B,  s.  10. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  329 

— and  the  judge  of  the  juvenile  court.  If  there  is  to  be  a 
mother's  pension  law,  it  ought  to  be  administered  by  the 
proposed  county  board  of  children's  guardians.  Mothers' 
pensions  should  not  be  administered  by  the  county  court. 

We  are  here  seeking  to  insure  that  children  will  be  given 
aid  out  of  public  funds  whenever  they  are  in  need.  Some 
will  not  come  under  any  mother's  pension  law.  Therefore, 
it  would  be  far  better  to  place  the  whole  matter  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  proposed  County  Boards  of  Children's 
Guardians  and  the  county  social  agent. 

Now  we  are  at  a  point  where  we  can  look  at  this  system  as 
a  whole.  The  state  by  its  laws  is  committed  to  the  idea  that 
some  court  should  adjudicate  cases  of  dependent  and  neg- 
lected, as  well  as  delinquent,  children.  For  the  best  interests 
of  all  children  it  would  be  better  to  confine  the  jurisdiction 
of  juvenile  courts  to  neglected  and  delinquent  children,  and 
charge  the  proposed  county  boards  of  children's  guardians 
with  the  care  of  dependent  children. 

Circuit  Courts  sit  in  every  county.  The  juvenile  court 
should  be  a  definite  part  of  the  Circuit  Court  and  none 
other,  and  the  procedure  should  be  strictly  on  the  chancery 
side.  There  should  be  no  jury  trials.  The  fact  that  Circuit 
Court  judges  have  jurisdiction  over  more  than  one  county 
presents  a  problem ;  but  this  could  be  met  by  having  the  cir- 
cuit judge  appoint  a  juvenile  referee  for  each  county.  This 
judge  now  has  the  power  to  appoint  a  divorce  commissioner 
in  each  county.  If  this  commissioner  were  made  juvenile 
referee,  an  excellent  system  of  state-wide  courts,  almost 
family  courts,  might  well  be  built  up. 

The  weakness  of  juvenile  courts  in  the  state  is  a  lack  of 
probation  service,  the  weakness  of  the  state's  whole  system  of 
child  care  is  that  there  is  no  one  at  the  county  court  house 
to  hurry  out  to  the  relief  of  any  child  that  may  be  reported 
in  need,  no  one  to  see  that  there  are  no  children  in  need. 
Every  county  needs  badly  an  official  social  worker  and  he 
the  chief  probation  officer  of  the  juvenile  court, 
ies  with  large  population,  there  should,  of  course, 


330  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

be  more  than  one  probation  officer.  This  combination  social 
worker  and  probation  officer  ought  to  be  nominated  by  the 
Circuit  Judge  and  when  approved  by  the  State  Board  of 
Children's  Guardians  elected  by  the  County  Board  of  Chil- 
dren's Guardians  herein  suggested.  He  ought  to  be  nomi- 
nated by  the  Circuit  Judge  because  he  will  be  the  probation 
officer  of  the  juvenile  court ;  he  ought  to  be  approved  by  the 
State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  because  he  should,  in 
law  and  in  fact,  be  the  representative  of  the  State  Board  in 
his  county  and  he  ought  to  be  elected  and  have  his  salary 
fixed,  to  be  paid  out  of  county  funds,  by  the  County  Board 
of  Children's  Guardians  because  it  is  wise  to  preserve  and 
develop  the  idea  of  local  activity  and  control  and  also  be- 
cause it  would  be  unwise  to  have  officers  placed  in  a  county 
without  any  sort  of  local  consent. 

The  County  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  should  be  the 
direct  representative  of  the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guar- 
dians in  the  county.  There  should  be  three  members,  one 
appointed  every  two  years.  Since  this  board  is  to  be  charged 
with  the  expenditure  of  county  funds,  the  members  should 
be  named  by  the  board  of  county  commissioners.  There 
are,  however,  some  good  reasons  for  having  the  State 
Board  of  Children's  Guardians  or  the  Governor  name  the 
members. 

The  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  should  be 
charged  with  the  oversight  of  every  handicapped  child 
whether  defective,  dependent,  neglected  or  delinquent, 
whether  in  an  institution,  public  or  private,  a  home  or  roam- 
ing at  will  over  the  county.  Part  of  this  is  now  one  of  its 
functions.  Delinquent  children  are  as  much  entitled  to 
supervisory  care  as  any  others.  The  State  Board  of  Chil- 
dren's Guardians  ought  to  see  that  children  committed  to 
state  or  county  institutions  for  delinquency,  or  for  any  other 
reason,  are  properly  housed,  fed  and  treated  just  as  much 
as  if  they  were  merely  dependent  or  neglected.  More  than 
that,  probation  officers  need  instruction  and  supervision  and 
the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  ought  to  give  it. 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  331 

It  is  a  mistake  to  develop  what  is  primarily  a  state  chil- 
dren's home-finding  organization  at  the  expense  of  county 
probation  service.  All  forms  of  child  care  ought  to  be 
brought  along  together  and  they  can  be  without  any  great 
changes.  There  would  be  no  need  for  any  material  enlarge- 
ment of  the  working  force  of  the  State  Board  of  Children's 
Guardians.  The  ten  district  agents  would  make  ideal  in- 
structors and  supervisors  of  the  county  social  agents.  In 
fact,  these  agents  themselves  are  now  doing  unofficially  much 
of  the  work  of  such  officers.  The  system  so  well  begun  ought 
to  be  rounded  out. 

Members  of  County  Boards  of  Children's  Guardians 
should  serve  without  pay,  and  there  should  therefore  be  no 
problem  there.  Heretofore,  it  has  not  been  easy  to  get 
paid  probation  officers.  The  reason  has  been  that  it  was  felt 
there  was  not  enough  work  to  justify  their  employment. 
But  their  activity  was  limited  to  delinquent  children.  We 
are  suggesting  an  officer  who,  serving  the  juvenile  court,  the 
County  and  State  Boards  of  Children's  Guardians,  all  allied 
in  their  official  interest  in  children,  will  have  the  oversight 
of  every  crippled,  deaf  and  dumb,  dependent,  neglected, 
abused  and  abandoned  child  as  well  as  delinquent  children. 
He  should  investigate  all  cases  where  public  funds  are  to  be 
expended  for  the  relief  of  children,  and  should  actually  see 
that  the  money  is  wisely  spent.  Not  enough  to  keep  him 
busy?  The  trouble  will  be  that  he  will  never  get  through, 
for  new  problems  will  arise  daily  and  old  ones  will  hang  on. 
This  business  of  letting  children  drag  on  in  want  to  grow  up 
into  men  and  women  unfitted  for  complete  living  ought  to  be 
ended,  and  the  way  to  do  it  is  to  put  somebody  in  the  county 
court  house,  an  official  social  worker,  to  see  that  it  is  ended. 

The  office  of  county  social  workers  in  the  smaller  counties 
should  be  enlarged  into  a  bureau  for  the  larger  counties,  the 
chief  of  which  should  be  the  chief  probation  officer  of  the 
juvenile  court.  In  addition  to  his  many  other  duties,  this 
county  social  worker  should  enforce  the  laws  regulating  the 
employment  of  children  in  his  county,  this,  of  course,  in  close 


332  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

cooperation  with  the   State  Department  of   Labor.     Child 
labor  restriction  is  a  child  welfare  matter. 

It  may  be  that  in  a  few  of  the  counties  with  very  small 
population  the  county  could  not  employ  both  the  county 
school  attendance  officer  and  the  county  social  worker  here 
suggested.  This  would  be  unfortunate;  but,  in  the  event 
that  it  comes  to  this,  it  is  suggested  that  the  county  school 
attendance  officer  be  charged  with  all  the  duties  of  the  county 
social  worker  and  that  he  be  paid  for  his  additional  service 
out  of  the  county,  not  school,  funds  such  sum  as  the  County 
Board  of  Children's  Guardians  determine,  provided  that  such 
county  school  attendance  officer  shall  be  approved  by  the 
judge  of  the  juvenile  court  as  probation  officer  and  by  the 
State  and  County  Boards  of  Children's  Guardians.  This 
suggestion  is  made  solely  to  meet  an  emergency  and  as  a 
temporary  solution  and  upon  the  definite  belief  that  county 
school  attendance  officers  will  be  provided  by  law.  If  pos- 
sible, each  county  should  have  both  a  county  school  attend- 
ance officer  and  a  county  social  agent. 


SUMMARY  OF  CHANGES  SUGGESTED 

LAW 

Consideration  should  be  given : 

1.  To  such  amendments  of  the  marriage  law  as  will  give 
the  mother  equal  rights  with  the  father  in  the  matter  of  con- 
sent, if  parental  consent  is  to  be  retained ;  and  will  insure  that 
both  parties  are  of  sound  mind  and  not  afflicted  with  venereal 
disease,  and  that  reasonable  notice  of  the  marriage  is  given. 
All  this  will  gather  about  the  manner  of  issuing  the  marriage 
license. 

2.  To  such  amendments  or  new  laws  as  will  insure  proper 
instruction,  care  and  treatment  of  expectant  mothers,  moth- 
ers and  children,   forbid  and  prevent  the  employment  of 
women  to  their  own  hurt  or  to  the  hurt  of  themselves  or  their 
children,  and  insure  that  midwives  are  instructed,  examined 
and  certificated. 

3.  To  such  amendments  of  the  law  as  will  make  it  clear 
once  and  for  all  that  the  mother  has  equal  joint  rights  with 
the  father  in  respect  to  their  child. 

4.  To  such  amendments  of  the  law  as  will  prevent  any 
able-bodied  parent  from  living  in  idleness  upon  the  labor, 
services  or  earnings  of  his  child,  will  prevent  any  parent 
from  depriving  his  or  her  child  under  16  years  of  age  of 
support  by  will,  will,  under  the  workmen's  compensation 
act,   cause   illegitimate  children,   when  so   declared  by  the 
court,   to  be  classed  as  dependents  of   their    fathers,   will 
raise  the  age  for  dependency  under  this  act  to  16,  and  will 
prevent  any  conduct  on  the  part  of  either  parent  from  being 
held,  in  law,  to  relieve  the  other  of  his  or  her  duty  to  support 
the  child. 

333 


334  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

5.  The  law  governing  adoption  is  in  the  main  good ;  but  it 
is  suggested  that  Circuit  Courts,  sitting  as  juvenile  courts, 
make    full   use   of   probation   officers    for   investigation    in 
cases  of  adoption. 

6.  To  the  repeal  of  all  law  or  parts  of  law  which  authorize 
the  binding-out  of  children. 

7.  To  such  amendments  of  the  law  as  will  give  any  mother 
who  wills  property  to  her  child  the  right  to  name  a  guardian 
for  the  estate,  to  empower  married  women  to  act  as  guard- 
ians, and  to  place  all  guardianship  matters  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Circuit  Courts,  sitting  as  juvenile  courts. 

8.  To  such  amendments  of  the  divorce  law  as  will  insure 
proper  investigation  of  cases  where  the  interests  of  children 
are  involved  by  probation  officers  of  the  juvenile  court. 

9.  To  such  changes  in  the  law  as  will  make  a  bastardy  pro- 
ceeding a  juvenile  court  matter  without  trial  by  jury;  will 
allow  the  action  to  be  brought  upon  the  woman's  oath  before 
the  birth  of  the  child  or  any  time  thereafter  up  to  the  time 
the  child  is  16  years  of  age ;  the  action  to  lie  for  the  benefit  of 
the  woman  even  if  the  child  is  dead,  if  brought  within  one 
year  from  birth,  and  to  lie  against  the  estate  of  a  deceased 
man,  if  brought  within  one  year  of  birth. 

10.  To  such  changes  in  the  law  as  will  make  legitimation 
depend  upon  the  fact  that  the  man  who  marries  the  mother 
has  been  declared  by  a  court  to  be  the  father  of  the  child  or 
that  he  acknowledges  the  paternity  in  writing. 


ADMINISTRATION 

Consideration  should  be  given : 

Health. 

1.  To  such  amendments  of  the  law  as  will  insure  a  new 
health  board  for  every  county  and  will  provide  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  health  unit  for  every  county  or  health  district 
made  up  of  a  group  of  counties. 

2.  To  the  provision  by  the  state  of  such  funds  as  will  be 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  335 

necessary  to  pay  all  county  or  district  health  officers  and  by 
each  county  of  sufficient  funds  to  meet  its  part  of  the  expense 
of  the  health  unit. 

3.  To  a  law  to  provide  for  instructing,  examining  and  cer- 
tificating midwives. 

4.  To  such  measures  as  will  insure  that  advice,  instruction 
and  aid,  if  necessary,  is  within  easy  reach  of  all  pregnant 
women  and  mothers  of  children. 

5.  To  such  law  as  will  insure  every  child  of  compulsory 
school  age,  7  to  16,  whether  in  school  or  at  work,  a  medical 
examination  at  least  once  a  year. 

Education. 

1.  To  an  amendment  of  the  constitution  so  as  to  empower 
the  State  Board  of  Education  to  name  the  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools  and  a  corresponding  change  in  the  law. 

2.  To  the  repeal  of  all  special  school  acts  so  that  a  system 
of  free  schools  may  be  a  reality.     The  larger  cities  should, 
perhaps,  have  the  same  administrative  system  as  counties,  but 
this  should  be  covered  by  the  general  law  rather  than  by 
special  acts. 

3.  To  the  establishment  of  a  county  .unit  system  with  a 
County  Board  of  Education.    The  presidents  of  the  district 
boards   might   constitute   the    membership   of    the    County 
Board ;  but  it  would  be  better  to  have  a  board  of  three  mem- 
bers, one  elected  every  second  year  and  each  for  a  term  of 
six  years.     This  board  should  be  empowered  to  name  the 
county  superintendent,  the  county  school  attendance  officer, 
and  to  determine  the  tax  levy  necessary  for  school  purposes 
and  to  build,  equip  and  own  public  schoolhouses  and  grounds 
and  to  submit  the  question  of  increased  taxes  for  free  schools 
to  the  voters  of  the  county,  as  a  single  district. 

4.  To  such  law  as  will  require  the  county  attendance  officer 
to  have  made  and  keep  a  census  of  all  children  of  school  age 
and  to  see  that  each  teacher  keeps  accurate  attendance  record 
of  every  child  of  compulsory  school  age  in  his  sub-district 
and  reports  at  the  end  of  each  week  all  absences  not  lawfully 


336  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

excused.  The  school  attendance  officer  should  grant  work 
permits  and,  of  course,  enforce  the  compulsory  school  attend- 
ance law.  Prosecution  for  violating  this  law  should  be 
brought  in  the  juvenile  court  on  the  chancery  side  as  other 
cases  of  neglect.  That  part  of  the  law  which  requires  writ- 
ten notice  before  prosecution  should  be  repealed. 

5.  a.  To  an  amendment  of  the  law  so  as  to  require  all 
teachers  in  city,  town,  or  independent  free  schools  to  hold 
state  certificates. 

b.  To  such  amendments  as  will  require  private  teachers 
and  teachers  in  private  schools  receiving  and  teaching  chil- 
dren of  compulsory  school  age,  to  hold  certificates  just  as 
public  school  teachers,  to  make  reports  at  the  end  of  each 
week  of  the  attendance  of  all  children  of  compulsory  school 
age,  and  to  teach  the  courses  prescribed  for  the  free  schools. 

Child  Labor. 

1.  To  such  amendments  of  the  child  labor  law: 

a.  As  will  make  it  illegal  to  hire  children  under  14  years 
of  age  to  work  in  agriculture  or  domestic  service. 

b.  As  will  insure  a  full  enumeration  of  dangerous  or  in- 
jurious trades,  occupations  or  processes. 

c.  As  will  authorize  and  require  the  compulsory  school  at- 
tendance officer,  and  him  only,  to  issue  work  permits  in 
triplicate,  will  require  the  agreement  to  employ  to  specify 
the  character  of  work,  and  will  require  issuing  officers  to 
file  all  papers  or  copies  thereof. 

2.  To  such  amendments  as  will  provide  part-time  schools 
for   all    children   under    18   years   of   age    who    have   not 
completed  the  course  of  study  prescribed  for  the  first  eight 
years  of  the  free  schools,  or  its  equivalent. 

3.  To  such  amendments  as  will  provide  for  a  system  of 
badges   for  street  traders,  with  supervision  either  by  the 
school  attendance  officer  or  county  social  agent  herein  sug- 
gested. 

4.  To  such  law  as  will  charge  the  county  social  agent  with 
the  duty  of  enforcing  all  laws  regulating  the  employment  of 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  STATE  337 

children  in  his  jurisdiction  in  cooperation  with  the   State 
Department  of  Labor. 

Child  Welfare. 

1.  To  the  enactment  of  an  entirely  new  juvenile  court  law 
incorporating  the  following  features: 

a.  The  juvenile  court  to  be  a  special  division  of  the  Circuit 
Court,  no  other  court  to  have  jurisdiction  of  any  child  of 
juvenile  age  except  upon  remand  by  the  juvenile  court.    The 
juvenile  court  should  have  exclusive  original  jurisdiction  in 
all  cases  of  neglect  or  delinquency  and  also  in  all  cases  of 
adoption,  appointment  of  guardian,  transfer  of  custody,  tru- 
ancy, and  the  administration  of  mothers'  pensions,  if  there 
are  to  be  mothers'  pensions. 

b.  There  should  be  no  trial  by  jury.    The  hearings  should 
be  entirely  on  the  chancery  side.    There  should  be  no  trials 
of  adults  for  crime. 

c.  Consideration  should  be  given  to  the  matter  of  having 
the  circuit  judge  appoint  a  combination  divorce  commissioner 
and  juvenile  judge  to  sit  as  referee  in  each  county. 

2.  To  such  expansion  of  the  powers  and  duties  of  the 
State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  as  will  give  it  the  over- 
sight of  all  handicapped  children,  even  those  in  public  insti- 
tutions, and  make  it  the  de  facto  guardian  of  every  child  in 
need. 

3.  To  the  creation  of  a  County  Board  of  Children's  Guar- 
dians for  each  county. 

4.  To  such  law  as  will  provide  in  each  county  a  county 
social  agent  with  the  following  features : 

a.  He  should  be  elected  and  have  his  compensation  fixed 
by  the  County  Board  of  Children's  Guardians. 

b.  He  should  be  approved  by  the  State  Board  of  Children's 
Guardians  as  its  representative. 

c.  He  should  be  approved  by  the  judge  of  the  Circuit 
Court  sitting  as  juvenile  judge,  as  probation  or  chief  proba- 
tion officer. 

d.  The  duties  of  the  county  social  agent  should  be : 


338  RURAL  CHILD  WELFARE 

(i.)  To  act  as  probation  or  chief  probation  officer  of 
the  juvenile  court;  to  make  all  investigations  including 
investigations  for  mothers'  pensions  if  there  are  to  be 
mothers'  pensions ;  for  adoption ;  the  appointment  of 
guardians ;  and  the  transfer  of  the  custody  of  a  child. 

(2.)  To  act  as  representative  of  the  State  and  County 
Boards  of  Children's  Guardians  in  the  oversight  of  all 
defective,  dependent,  neglected  and  delinquent  children, 
and  to  follow  up  deaf  and  dumb,  blind  and  crippled 
children;  to  cooperate  with  the  State  Bureau  of  Labor 
in  enforcing  the  child  labor  law ;  and  to  see  that  care  is 
given  to  every  dependent  child. 

5.  In  counties  of  small  population  it  nay  be  impossible 
to  provide  for  a  full  time  county  social  agent.    In  that  case 
the  county  school  attendance  officer  should  be  charged  with 
all  the  duties  of  the  county  social  agent. 

To  do  all  this  it  will  be  necessary  to  repeal  Chapter  in, 
1919,  and  Chapter  134,  1921,  and  all  acts  of  which  either 
of  them  is  an  amendment  and  to  enact  two  new  acts;  one, 
establishing  the  juvenile  court  as  a  special  part  of  the  Circuit 
Court  in  every  county,  and  the  other,  establishing  State  and 
County  Boards  of  Children's  Guardians.  Many  good  fea- 
tures of  both  acts  should  be  retained,  as,  for  instance,  the 
ten  district  agents  of  the  State  Board  of  Children's 
Guardians. 

6.  To  the  repeal  of  all  laws  authorizing  children  to  be 
bound  out. 

7.  To  the  repeal  of  the  mothers'  pension  act  and  at  the 
same  time  to  the  enactment  of  such  law  as  will  insure  that 
ample  funds  are  provided  in  each  county  for  the  care  of 
every  dependent  child.     Such  funds  should  be  paid  out  and 
the  expenditure  thereof  supervised  by  the  County  Board  of 
Children's  Guardians. 


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APPENDIX 


34i 


TABLE  III 

INCOME  FROM  FARM  AND  SUPPLEMENTARY  SOURCES  FOR  OWNERS, 
TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS 


Owners 

Tenants 

Laborers 

486 
families 

families 

96 

families 

Average  number  dol- 

i * 

lars  per  family 

942 

760 

75 

«*-!      C 

Per    cent    from    live 

c  | 

IJ 

stock      .... 

54 

56 

97 

1J 

0 

Per  cent  from  crops  . 

46 

44 

3 

Farm  expenses       .... 

423 

297 

54 

Net  farm  income  .... 

519 

463 

21 

Average  number  dollars  per 

fami 

Iv 

4.81 

271 

7-iC 

§i 

§  o 

Per  cent  from  skilled  labor    . 

24 

32 

Per  cent  from  unskilled  labor 

4i 

83 

61 

& 

Per  cent  from  other  sources  . 

35 

16 

7 

Average  number  dollars  per 

0) 

fami 

Iv 

IOOO 

736 

756 

if 

Per  cent  from  farm  sources  . 

52 

63 

3 

* 

Per  cent  from  supplementary 

sour 

ces       

48 

37 

97 

1  Less  than  I  per  cent. 


342 


APPENDIX 


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APPENDIX 


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APPENDIX 


345 


TABLE  VII 

CAUSES  OF  ABSENCE  FROM  SCHOOL  OF  CHILDREN,  FOR  FAMILIES  OF 
OWNERS,  TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS,  AS  STATED  BY  PARENTS  l 


Owners 

Tenants 

Laborers 

Work  

38 

18 

15 

2«5 

5 

7 

Indifference    .... 

22 

2 

6 

No  school 

5 

Distance  and  weather     . 

6 

I 

Taught  at  home  .     .     . 

I 

1  Some  families  gave  more  than  one  reason. 


TABLE  VIII 

NUMBER  AND  AVERAGE  AGES  OF  MEN  AND  WOMEN,  FOR  OWNERS 
TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS 


Owners 

Tenants 

Laborers 

Men 

Women 

Men 

Women 

Men 

Women 

Number     . 

444 

440 

74 

70 

91 

92 

Average  age    . 

50.1 

457 

39-8 

34-8 

41.7 

37-1 

346 


APPENDIX 


TABLE  IX 

EDUCATION  OF  MEN  AND  WOMEN,  FOR  OWNERS,  TENANTS, 
AND  LABORERS 


Owners 

Tenants 

Laborers 

Number 

Number 

Number 

Number 

Number 

Number 

men 

women 

men 

women 

men 

women 

Cannot  read  or  write 

58 

54 

15 

5 

18 

16 

Completed  ist  grade 

15 

6 

i 

2 

"          2nd    " 

22 

8 

2 

2 

2 

I 

3rd     " 

29 

29 

4 

2 

10 

IO 

4th     " 

58 

67 

10 

14 

15 

16 

5th     " 

75 

82 

18 

16 

IO 

13 

6th     " 

20 

22 

2 

I 

II 

8 

7th     " 

7 

14 

3 

5 

7 

5 

8th     " 

no 

114 

II 

15 

IO 

16 

9th     " 

3 

4 

2 

i 

10th      " 

4 

2 

i 

nth     " 

I 

i 

2 

I2th     " 

2 

2 

i 

Some  high  school 

I 

I 

High  school  graduate 

I 

I 

I  yr.  academy 

I 

Academy  graduate     . 

I 

I 

2  yrs.  prep,  school 

I 

Some  normal  .... 

I 

2 

Normal  graduate 

2 

2 

2 

I 

i  yr.  Normal  .... 

I 

I  yr.  college     .... 

3 

3 

i  ^  yr.  college     . 

I 

2  yrs.  college  .... 

I 

I 

I 

I 

College  graduate  . 

3 

i 

i 

College  and  2  yrs.  medical 

i 

Unknown  

5 

3 

Total    

426 

419 

68 

65 

89 

89 

APPENDIX 


347 


TABLE  X 

KINDS  AND  CONDITION  OF  HOMES  AND  EQUIPMENT,  FOR  OWNERS, 
TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS 


Owners 

485 
families 

Tenants 
families 

Laborers 
96 
families 

Kind  of  house 

Frame       

418 
53 
9 
I 

4 

59 
14 

I 

75 
16 

i 
4 

Both  log  and  frame  . 
Stone   

Brick   

Stucco       

Average  number  rooms  per  house 
Average  number  rooms  per  person     . 

5.84 
i.  20 

5-77 

I.OI 

4-79 
i.  02 

Home 
atmosphere 

Good    

213 
153 
119 

25 
27 

22 

30 
40 
26 

Fair     

Poor     

0. 

3"g 

^5  & 

CO  * 

Good 

235 
144 
106 

24 
29 
21 

30 
45 

21 

Fair      

Poor     

1^ 

Yes      

242 
243 

35 
39 

37 
59 

No       

1 
1 

Yes      

390 
95 

58 
16 

73 
23 

No        

M 
g-s! 

Yes      

53 
432 

i 
73 

4 
92 

No        .... 

Source  of 
water  supply 

Wells    

235 
63 
185 
5 

3i 

21 
21 

I 

32 

20 

44 

Cisterns     
Springs      
River   

Average  depth  of  wells  l  .     .     .     . 

47 

48 

64 

1  Record  for  260. 


348 


APPENDIX 


TABLE  XI 

MEMBERSHIP  IN  CLUBS  AND  ORDERS  AND  ATTENDANCE  AT  MEETINGS 

AND  FUNCTIONS,  OF  PARENTS  AND  CHILDREN,  FOR 

OWNERS,  TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS 


Owners 
486  families 

Tenants 
75  families  l 

Laborers 
96  families 

Parents 

Children 

Parents 

Children 

Parents 

Children 

Clubs    .... 

136 

58 

9 

3 

4 

5 

Picnics 

159 

155 

26 

29 

34 

3i 

Parties       .      .     . 

80 

123 

6 

17 

14 

13 

Dances 

18 

26 

i 

2 

8 

6 

Athletics    .     .     . 

47 

60 

7 

9 

2 

7 

Public  meetings    . 

194 

133 

20 

13 

38 

20 

Fraternal  orders   . 

109 

19 

2O 

1  Records  for  74. 

TABLE  XII 

HOME    EQUIPMENT,    AUTOMOBILES,    AND   TRACTORS,    FOR    OWNERS* 
TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS 


Owners 
486  families 

Tenants 
75  families  l 

Laborers 
96  families 

Having 

Not 
having 

Having 

Not 
having 

Having 

Not 
having 

Piano  or  organs    . 

234 

252 

19 

55 

20 

76 

Other  musical  in- 
struments   . 

150 

336 

26 

48 

31 

65 

Sewing  machines  . 

4OI 

85 

59 

15 

68 

28 

Power  washer 

16 

470 

0 

74 

I 

95 

Telephones 

267 

219 

3i 

43 

24 

72 

Automobiles    . 

in 

376 

12 

62 

22 

74 

Lighting  systems  . 

77 

409 

2 

72 

IO 

86 

Tractors     .      .      . 

15 

471 

O 

74 

0 

96 

1  Records  for  74. 


APPENDIX 


349 


TABLE  XIII 
READING  MATTER,  FOR  OWNERS,  TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS 


Owners 
486 
families 

Tenants 
families  1 

Laborers 

9.6. 

families 

OT 

1 

PQ 

Total  number  books    . 
Average  number  per  family  . 
Number  families  having  none 

22,547 
46 

55 

1,290 

17 
ii 

1,995 

21 

20 

Total  number  dailies  . 

129 

22 

26 

1 

Average  number  per  family  . 

.26 

•30 

.27 

W 

Number  families  having  none 

370 

55 

72 

| 

Total  number  weeklies     . 

514 

43 

38 

1 

Average  number  per  family  . 

i.  06 

•58 

.40 

Number  families  having  none 

150 

45 

70 

Total  number  farm  papers     . 

605 

84 

63 

Jl 

Average  number  per  family  . 

1.24 

I-I3 

•65 

*« 

Number  families  having  none 

174 

32 

58 

^p 

Total  number  current  maga- 
zines   

520 

52 

46 

r*$ 

Average  number  per  family  . 

1.07 

.70 

.48 

Number  families  having  none 

255 

44 

70 

1  Records  for  74. 


350 


APPENDIX 


TABLE  XIV 

OCCUPATIONS  OF  CHILDREN  WHO  HAVE  LEFT  HOME  BY  NUMBER  AND 
PER  CENT,  FOR  FAMILIES  OF  OWNERS,  TENANTS,  AND  LABORERS 


Owners 
486  families 

Tenants 
75  families 

Laborers 
96  families 

Number 

Per  cent 

Number 

Per  cent 

Number 

Per  cent 

Farm  work 

245 

29  + 

5 

9- 

8 

15  + 

Unskilled  work     . 

116 

14- 

ii 

22  — 

3   10 

19  + 

Local  industrial 
work 

H5 

14- 

13 

25  + 

IO 

19  + 

Clerical    and    sales 
work 

57 

7~ 

i 

2  — 

I 

2  — 

Professions  with 
educational    re- 
quirement   . 

76 

9+ 

2 

4- 

0 

Professions  with 
apprenticeship 
requirement 

89 

n  + 

I 

2  — 

8 

15  + 

Semi-skilled  work 

66 

8- 

5 

10  — 

5 

IO  — 

Miscellaneous 

34 

4+ 

6 

12  — 

5 

IO  — 

Unknown  . 

46 

5  + 

7 

14- 

5 

10  — 

Total    .      .      . 

844 

5i 

52 

INDEX 


Absence  from  school  (see  School 

attendance) 
Adoption  of  children 

Law  270,  326,  384,  337,  33$ 

Methods  of  202-203,  230 
Agriculture — See     Labor,    Child 

Farms,  Farm  work 
Almshouses 

Detention  homes  197,  220,  223, 

234-235 

Homes  for  children  2,  3,  170, 
173,  175,  106-200,  207,  215, 
236 

Apprenticeship  law  268-271 
Attendance   (see   School  attend- 
ance) 
Automobiles  on  farms  41,  42 

Binding  out  of  children  3,  u,  170, 
173,  175,  190-196,  334,  338 

Causes  of  absence  from  school 
45,  46,  74,  76-77,  101,  102, 
104-119 

Census,  school  (see  Schools,  cen- 
sus) 
Certificates     of     teachers      (see 

Schools,  teachers) 
Children 

Ages  of  17,  18,  19 
Blind  252,  306,  307,  338 
Crippled  215,  306,  325,  331,  338 
Deaf  and  dumb  252,  306,  307, 

.325,  331,  338 
Delinquent      (see     Delinquent 

children) 
Dependent      (see      Dependent 

children) 

Feeble-minded      (see     Feeble- 
minded children) 
Neglected  (see  Neglected  chil- 
dren) 


Children 

Number  of  rural  at  home  17, 18 
Number  of  rural  away  from 

home  19,  46,  47,  48,  49 
Club  work  9,  10,  38,  39,  40,  62-93, 

113,  132,  133,  144,  156,  161, 

258 

Consent,  age  of  264,  285 
County  board  of  children's  guar- 
dians   proposed    260,    329- 

332,  337-338 
County  board  of  education  136, 

299-303,  335 
County  board  of  health  257,  290, 

291,  293 
County  social   worker   proposed 

175,  217,  218,  224,  329-332, 

336-338 
County  superintendent  of  schools 

(see     Superintendent    of 

schools,  county) 
Court 
Circuit  171,  173,  178,  183,  211, 

262,  270,  276,  278,  281,  282, 

316,  317,  3i8,  322,  329,  334, 

337,  338 
County  171,  173,  190,  196,  206, 

207,  246,  270,  271,  276,  281, 

290,  291,  293,  296,  300,  326, 

327 

Juvenile  (see  Juvenile  Court) 
Custody  of  child  6,  180,  216,  267- 

283,  333,  337,  338 


Defective  children  3,  102,  172, 
216,  283,  287,  307,  315,  330, 
33i,  338  (see  also  Children, 
blind,  crippled,  deaf  and 
dumb,  feeble-minded) 

Delinquent  children  I,  2,  3,  10, 
168,  172,  216,  219-235,  283, 
287,  315,  316-323,  330,  331, 
337,  338 


351 


352 


INDEX 


Delinquent  children 
Methods  of  dealing  with  222, 
223,  226-235,  320,  326,  329 
Offenses  of  222,  224-226,  228 
Dependent  children  i,  3,  165-218, 
274,  283,  284,  287,  315,  3i6, 
323-332,  333,  337-338 
Defined  165-166 
Disposition   of   by   court    166, 

190-199,  206-208 
Deserted  children  175,  211,  272 
Divorce   commissioner   as   juve- 
nile referee  329,  337 
Divorce  law  262,  263,  278, 280, 334 

Earnings  of  child  50,  86,  87,  90 
Parents'  right  to  268,  269,  333 

Education  (see  Schools) 

Employment 

Children  (see  Labor,  child) 
Women  before  and  after  child- 
birth 7,  266,  333 

Enforcement  (see  Child  labor 
law  and  School  attendance 
law) 

Enrollment  at  school  (see 
Schools,  enrollment) 

Entertainments,  school  (see 
Schools,  entertainments) 

Experience  of  teachers  (see 
Schools,  teachers) 

Family,  rural 
age  of  parents  16,  17,  20,  174, 

201 

Size  of  17,  18,  19,  20,  26 
Farm  homes  4,  5,  12-51,  152 
Atmosphere  of  29,  32,  50,  188 
Kinds  of  28,  29,  32,  174,  189 
Farm  income  24-28,  45,  50 
Sources  of  25-28 
Supplementary  26-28 
Farms,  types  13,  14,  48,  49,  88 
Farm  work  as  cause  of  absence 
from  school  45,  72,  74-75, 
107-113 
Farm  work,  kinds  of  13,  20,  21, 

23,  48,  55-6o,  70,  108 
Feeble-mindedness  7,  9,  95,  170, 
175,  197,  198,  201,  204,  212, 
213,  215,  216,  262,  265,  306, 
315,  3i6 


Foods  12,  22,  25,  34-38,  48,  49,  50, 
175,  183 

Foster  parents  (see  Homes,  fos- 
ter) 

Funds  (see  Taxes) 

Guardianship  3,  7,  166,  173,  182- 
184,  268,  269,  271-277,  282, 
284,  319,  324,  325,  334,  337, 
338 

Health  i,  6,  12,  62,  69,  265,  286 
Health  conditions  4,  28-34,  45,  50, 

77-81,  104-108,  119-123,  162, 

163,  175,  266,  267 
Health  examinations  7,  107,  294, 

295,301,302,311,325,335 
Health  work  7,  8,  171,  172,  216, 

217,  236,  259,  260,  334,  335 
By  county  8,  290-297,  334,  335 
By  state  8,  255,  287-292,  294- 

296 

Federal  aid  for  8,  296,  297 
Funds  290,   291,   292,   293-334, 

335 
Heating  of   school  houses    (see 

Schools,  heating) 
Home-finding  3,  171-174,  179,  186, 
315,  319,  325,  33i  (see  also 
Placing  Out  of  children) 
Homes 
Broken  168,  169,  173,  174,  176- 

190,  214 
Foster   168,   170,    172-180,   189, 

216,  236 
Hit-or-miss     174-178,     180-182, 

187,  236 

Relatives  168,  170,  176-177 
Homes,  farm  (see  Farm  Homes) 
Housing  4,  28-30 

Illegitimate  children  7,  157,  170, 
175,  200-203,  272,  274,  279, 
333-334 
Law  265,  280-283,  333 

Illiteracy  43,  44,  101,  139 

Illness  as  cause  of  absence  from 
school  45,  46,  104-108 

Income,  farm  (see  Farm  in- 
come) 


INDEX 


353 


Indifference  as  cause  of  absence 
from  school  46,   107,   108, 
114-119 
Institutions  8,  173,  201,  206,  215, 

216,  223,  321-326,  330 
Control  of  249 
List  of  249-255 
State  184,  215 

Jail  as  detention  home  223,  232, 

233-234,  236,  321 
Justice    of    Peace    dealing   with 

children  173,  224,  227,  228, 

229,  237,  320,  322 
Juvenile  Court   10,  219-235,  237, 

270,  271,  277,  279,  316-326, 

329-332,  334,  336-338 

Labor,  child  9,  10,  11,  52-93,  103, 
143,  144,  H5,  269,  307-315, 
328,  331,  332,  336,  337  (see 
also  Work  permits) 

Enforcement   11,  260,  307-308, 
3I2-3IS,  331,  336,  338 

Farm  4,  23,  24,  45,  46,  52-93, 
108,  309,  310,  312,  336 

Law  53,  102,  207,  261,  262,  269, 
309-315,  328,  331,  336,  337 

Standards   for   11,  62,  77,  81, 

no,  314,  336 

Laborers    (see  Work,   rural  in- 
dustrial) 
Land  ownership  12-51 

Tenure  15,  16,  189 

McClung,      Mrs.,      quoted      on 

schools  133 
Marriage  7,   175,   263,   266,   269, 

270,  278-280 

Ages  for  7,  264,  265,  271,  283 
Early  175,  211 
License   7,  264,   265,  266,   269, 

.,      .333 

Marriage  laws  333 

Maternity  homes   201,  252,  266- 

267,  315,  326 
Mental  tests  7,  198 
Midwives  266,  335 
Music 

In  homes  41,  42 

In  schools  (see  Schools,  music) 


Neglected  children  i,  6,  10,  168, 
210,  216,  236,  272,  387,  315, 
316,  323-326,  329-331,  337, 
338 

Orphanages    170,    171,    174,    179, 

186,  252,  315,  325 
Orphans  184,  197 

Pensions,  mothers'  170,  171,  172, 
175,  204-209,  260,  316,  326- 
329,  337,  338  (see  also 
Poor  relief) 

Placing  out  of  children  170-173, 

174,  179,  186,  187,  214-215, 
217,  224,  315,  319,  325-326, 
330-331    (see   also   Home- 
finding) 

Play  (see  Recreation) 

Playgrounds  10,  131,  304 

Poor  relief  i,  3,  8,  in,  171,  172, 

175,  204-210,  236,  258,  259, 
260,  324,  327-329,  33i 

Poverty  as  cause  of  absence  from 

school  108-113 
Pre-natal   care  7,  266,  267,  294, 

333,  335 
Privies 
At  farm  homes  25,  30,  31,  33, 

50,  174,  189 
School  120 

Probation  service  10, 172-174, *79, 
207,  224,  227,  230-232,  235, 
237,  259,  279,  317,  318,  319, 
321,  329,  330,  33i,  332,  334, 
337,  338 

Qualifications  of  teachers  (see 
Schools,  teachers) 

Recreation  i,  4,  6,  10,  12,  38-43, 

51,  60,  62,  81-83,   140-164, 
175,  236,  237,  286,  301 

Agricultural  clubs  10,  38,  39, 
40,  66-68,  156,  161 

Athletics  10,  39,  1 60,  163 

Church  and  Sunday  School  at- 
tendance 10,  39,  4i,  !49, 
157 

Dances  38,  39,  40,  154 

Fraternal  orders  39 


354 


INDEX 


Recreation 

Parties  38,  40,  148,  149,  *54, 156 

Picnics  38,  39,  148 

Playgrounds  (see  Playgrounds 
and  Schools) 

Public  meetings  10,  39 

School    (see    Schools,    recrea- 
tion) 

Trips  41 
Reading  matter  in  homes  42-43, 

174,  189,  190 

Red  Cross  167,  171,  204-205,  210, 
233,  257 

Relief  of  poor  (see  Poor  relief) 

Retardation  in  school  76,  94-96, 
98,  100-101,  188 

Rights  of  children  i,  2,  5-11,  12, 
18,  45,  5i,  54,  60,  77,  94, 
no,  141,  142,  203,  214-217, 
237,  261,  272-274,  279,  283, 
286,  287 

Roads,  condition  of  114,  135,  170 

Sanitation  4,  289 
Homes  25,  28-30,  33,  34,  50 
Schools  107,  119,  120 
Schools  i,  4,  6,  8,  9,  12,  43-46,  51, 
62,   94-139,    183,   236,   261, 
286,  297-306,  335,  336 
Administration    10,     133,     136, 

137,  297-307,  335 
Attendance  3,  4,  9,  44-46,  51, 
72,  74-77,  83,  94-139,   174, 

175,  187,  1 88,  196,  197,  206, 
215,  236,  303-306,  328,  336 

Compulsory,  law  102,  207, 
262,  269,  304,  306,  307,  328, 
336 

Enforcement  9,  10,  45,  46,  93, 
102,  103,  105,  109,  136,  210, 
255,  260,  302,  312-315,  336- 
337 

Exemptions  9,  102-103,  305 

Officers  9,  46,  102,  136,  167, 
210,  221,  260,  305,  306,  307, 
310,  312,  313,  3M,  332,  335, 
336,  338 

Records  of  75,  98,   104-118, 

335 
Census  9,  99,  100,  136,  304, 

305,  307,  335 


Schools 

Condition  of  51,  76,  77,  119- 

124,  303 
Consolidation    10,    114,    133, 

134,  135,  304 
Curriculum    9,    10,    130-133, 

336 
District  boards   136,   259,  300- 

303,  305,  335 
Enrollment  304,  98-100 
Entertainments  131,  132 
Equipment   123,   124,   130,   133, 

134 

Federal  aid  for  9 
Funds    136,    137,    138,   240-244, 

246,  255-257,  259,  302,  335 
Heating  122,  123,  131 
Libraries  131 
Lighting  122 

Location  of  113,  114,  119,  134 
Music  131 

Part  time  9,  n,  314,  336 
Playgrounds  131,  134,  157,  159, 

304 
Recreation    10,    131,    132,    157, 

158,  159,  160,  161,  301 
Superintendent,     county     (see 
Superintendent  of  schools, 
county) 

Teachers  124-130,  139,  301,  304 
Certificates  of  124,  125,  298, 

300,  303,  305,  306,  336 
Experience  of  125-128 
Qualifications    of   4,   51,   89, 
125-130,  134,  136,  137,  157- 
o  159,  303 
Salaries  of  51,  122,  128,  137, 

138 

Shortage  of  96,  97,  126-128 
Term,  length  of  9,  75,  96,  97, 

137,  139 
Transportation  of  pupils   134- 

135 
Water  supply  121-122 

Screening  of  houses  28-29,  30,  33, 
50 

Standards  for  child  welfare  5-11, 
96,  202,  204,  214,  215,  216, 
237,  261,  314 

State  Board  of  Children's  Guar- 
dians 172,  173,  237,  252, 


INDEX 


355 


262,  266,  267,  315,  319,  320, 
323,  325,  329,  330,  331,  332, 

337,  338 
State  Board  of  Control  249-255, 

306,  316,  321,  322 
State  Bureau  of  Labor  255,  287, 


State 


307-315,  332,  337,  338 
Child  Welfare  Commission 


262 


State  Department  of  Child  Wel- 
fare, proposed  287,  315 

State  Department  of  Education 
96,  99,  103,  125,  126,  137, 
159,  287,  297-299,  300,  303, 
306,  308,  315,  335 

State  Department  of  Health  8, 
255,  287-290,  293,  294,  296, 
308,  315 

Superintendent  of  Schools 
County  136,  299-301,  303,  317, 

3i8,  335 
State  297-299,  303,  309,  335 

Taxes  238-260 

Outline  of  system  239-245 

Property  246-248 

Road  257,  259 

School  136,  137,  138,  246,  255- 

257,  259,  302,  335 
Teachers  (see  Schools,  teachers) 
Telephones  in  homes  41,  42 
Tenancy  12-51 

Term  of  school  (see  Schools, 
term) 


Toilets   (see  Privies) 

Tramp  children  2,  3,  174,  177, 181, 

182,  214,  236 
Transportation    of    pupils     (see 

Schools,  transportation) 

Unmarried  mothers  157,  175, 197, 
200-203,  280-283,  334 

Vital  Statistics,  law  7,  262,  289, 
291,  292 

Water  supply 

Homes  25,  28,  30,  3 1,  33,  34,  50, 

189 
Schools    (see    Schools,    water 

supply) 
Weather    as    cause    of    absence 

from  school  113,  114 
Work  (see  also  Labor,  child) 
Farm  3,  4,  18,  20,  21-23,  24,  45, 
46,   48,   50,   52,   55-60,    70, 
108,  162-163,  309,  310,  312, 
336 

Rural  industrial,  15,  22,  23,  70 
Skilled  21,  22,  27,  28,  46,  47,  48 
Unskilled  21,  22,  23,  27,  28,  46, 

47,48 

Work  as  cause  of  absence  from 
school  (see  Farm  work  as 
a  cause  of  absence) 
Work   of   children    (see   Labor, 

child,  also  Farm  work) 
Work  permits  9,  n,  112,  136,  207, 
260,  305,  309-315,  328,  336 


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